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"[Science fiction] is the one literary medium left in which we have a free hand. We can do any damn thing we please."
- Alfred Bester
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| Spine-Clamp | ||
| A device that constrains the movements of convicted criminals. |
Those not of the avout may be disciplined while still allowed to roam free.
| "...if someone commits a bad enough crime, the Powers That Be clamp a thing on their spine that makes them sort of crippled for a while. Later it falls off and then they are normal again."
"Does it hurt?" "No." A new page. "When you see someone wearing one of those devices, can you tell what crime they committed?" "Yes, it says right on it, in Kinagrams." |
| From Anathem,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Morrow in 2008 Additional resources -
|
Here's what happens when it goes into control mode:
Readers may also be reminded of Heinlein's security restraint field.
His spine-clamp exploded in light, flashing alternately red and blue... Every muscle in his body had lost tone in the same instant, jammed by signals from the clamp."
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Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to 'help them out.'
'... you had your trademark Lucky Dragon Global Interactive Video Column outside.'
'It's an Indian Air Force drone; its solar cells could power an entire farm.'
'... we were supposed to be forming five unit composites first."
'We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up...'
'Light from the sun hit those little spheres and bounced.'
'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'THE SPACE VESSEL was traveling swiftly… For over five thousand years they had Voyaged on and on.’
