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"You have to budget the number of fuzzy rules you use to control a system. It turns out, you can state the optimality principle in three words: 'patch the bumps.'"
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Ecstasy Plug | ||
| An implanted module that allowed a wirehead to plug himself into ordinary house current. |
Gil Hamilton is investigating the death of his friend Owen, finding him in a chair mere feet from food and water. What killed him?
| It was a standard surgical job. Owen could have had it done anywhere. A hole in his scalp, invisible under the hair, nearly impossible to find even if you knew what you were looking for. Even your best friends wouldn't know, unless they caught you with the droud plugged in. But the tiny hole marked a bigger plug set in the bone of the skull. I touched the ecstasy plug with my imaginary fingertips, then ran down the hair-fine wire going deep into Owen's brain, down into the pleasure center.
No, the extra current hadn't killed him. What had killed Owen was his lack of willpower. He had been unwilling to get up. |
| From Death by Ecstasy,
by Larry Niven. Published by Galaxy Magazine in 1969 Additional resources -
|
See also the entry for droud from the same story.
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