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"In science fiction one can say a great many things that are unpalatable, … because it's expressed as science fiction you can slip it past their defenses."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Audio Relay | ||
| A communication device implanted behind the ear; also used as an alarm for wake-up calls. |
Here's a handy invention that would have been impossible in the 1940's (when the story was written) but is eminently manufacturable in the 21st century. Not satisfied with technologies that were merely forty years ahead of his time, Heinlein skipped right over the entire cell phone era.
| The sort of phone my Section uses is not standard; the audio relay is buried surgically under the skin back of my left ear - bone conduction. |
| From The Puppet Masters,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Hopefully, it uses a very low level of radiation in transmitting back to the caller.
As far as I know, the first person to suggest this idea was sf's own Hugo Gernsback, who filed for a patent on an "osophone" in 1923; the patent was granted in 1924.
In 2000, Digital Angel created a subdermal device that "can be used to monitor a person's key body functions -- such as temperature and pulse -- and transmit that data wirelessly, on a real time basis, along with the accurate location of the person, to a web-enabled ground station or monitoring facility," according to their press release.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Puppet Masters
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Tech news articles related to The Puppet Masters
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Audio Relay-related
news articles:
- Bone Conduction Cell Phone
- Cellphone Inventor Cooper Trails Heinlein Again
- Surreal iPhone Ad Video Parody Channels Dick, Heinlein
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Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to "help them out."
'Improving man by bringing him close to Nature, while they combine the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well...'
Um, how about that pension for the humans who serve as the models for robot behavior?
'...used as surrogates in intense dependency cases.'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
