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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross
 |
| Tattletale | ||
| A device is attached to a criminal suspect, ensuring that his whereabouts are always known. |
This is a good prediction of the idea of an "ankle bracelet" - a device that is used to ensure that people on house arrest really do stay in their houses.
| "Mr. Hawthorne and I have decided not to book any of you: there's no direct evidence involving any one of you in the crime. But if we do let you go, you must agree to carry tattletales with you at all times. Inquire of your attorney Mr. Sharp if that will be acceptable."
"What the hell is a tattletale?" Joe Schilling asked. "A tracing device," Hawthorne said. "It will inform us where each of you are at all times." "Does it have a telepathic content?" Pete asked. "No," Hawthorne said. "Although I wish that it had." On the vid screen, Laird Sharp, youthful and active-looking, said, "I heard the proposal and without going into it any further I'd be inclined to label it a clear violation of these people's rights... Don't allow them to hook any sort of monitoring devices to you, and if you discover they have, rip them off..." |
| Technovelgy from The Game Players of Titan,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace Books in 1963 Additional resources -
|
The first officially sanctioned use of ankle bracelets (or ankle monitors) occurred in 1983, under Judge Jack Love in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It's also interesting that Dick mentions the idea of "telepathic content" to find out more about the subject than just location. Ankle monitors today can accurately report alcohol use, by sampling the subject's perspiration; results are reported via the Internet to police monitors. The device is called a SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor), and they've been used in Florida for DWI and domestic-violence cases. They are made by Colorado-based Alcohol Monitoring Systems Inc. and cost $100 each to set up and $12 a day to operate. Much cheaper than jail, for you taxpayers.
It's likely that the actual impetus for the development of the ankle bracelet or ankle monitor comes from the Spider man comic books:
He struck an arrangement with a computer salesman to develop the devices, which were introduced in New Mexico in 1983. They proved to work well, and a similar device was then developed in Florida a year or two later.
Both tests were successful, and the product then went national, leading to the current arrangement today.
Compare to the Wrist Search Display from A Matter of Size (1934) by Harry Bates,
Wireless Wrist Intercom from The Shape of Things To Come (1936) by H.G. Wells,
Reserve Bracelet from Plague (1944) by Murray Leinster,
Wristband Viewer from Changeling (1980) by Roger Zelazny,
Implant-Watch from Cloak of Anarchy (1972) by Larry Niven,
Predator Wrist Display from Predator (1987) by John McTierna,
Wrist Command from Tides of Light (1989) by Gregory Benford,
Tracking Bracelet from Shadowspeer (1990) by Patricia Jo Clayton,
Inertial Bracelet from Psychohistorical Crisis (2001) by Donald Kingsbury,
Command Bracelet from Sagramanda (2006) by Alan Dean Foster and the
Wristpad from New York 2140 (2017) by Kim Stanley Robinson.
A New Mexico district court judge, Jack Love, read a late 70s Spider-Man comic strip in the newspaper, where the villain Kingpin was tracking Spider-Man via an electronic tracking bracelet on Spider-Man’s wrist. Love theorized that such a device would work in real life, as well.
(Via ComicBookResources)
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