Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Latest By
Category:


Armor
Artificial Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work

"The planet's immune system is doing everything it can. The planet's immune system is doing everything it can."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Cephalotropic Dart  
  A slim, short-range device that homes in on the brain wave pattern of the target.  

One after another, the cigarillos were cut open by Theodoric's men, inspected ... the fifth one turned out to be hard; it did not yield to the sharp-bladed pocket knife, and, a moment later, a more complex analytical device showed the cigarillo to be a homeostatic cephalotropic dart.

"Whose Alpha-wave pattern?" Theodoric Ferry asked Dosker.

"Yours," Dosker said tonelessly. He watched without affect as the two decayed-eyed but very expert employees of THL crushed the dart under heel, rendering it useless.

Technovelgy from Lies, Inc., by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Fantastic in 1964
Additional resources -

Philip K. Dick was fascinated by the idea of devices that made use of brain wave patterns; he re-used this idea in his 1969 story The Electric Ant. See the entry for ident dart.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Lies, Inc.
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to Lies, Inc.
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Cephalotropic Dart-related news articles:
  - DARPA's 'Biometrics-At-A-Distance' Knows You By Heart

Articles related to Weapon
Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
Moscow Attacked By Hundreds Of Drones
China's Handheld Electromagnetic Gun
Is The Seattle Ultrasonics C-200 A Heinlein Vibroblade?

Want to Contribute an Item? It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.

<Previous
Next>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Science Fiction in the News

NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...'

Did Frank Herbert Predict E-Ink Displays?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'

Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'

'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC)
'And here they began to build...'

China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'

MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'

Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'

Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris
Preventing annoying space debris build-up.

Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'

DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.