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"Every scientist worth his salt that I know of has read science fiction."
- Greg Bear
 |
| Mediatron | ||
| A paper-thin networked computer display. |
Actually, I think they look just exactly like a piece of paper. Displays on a very thin film are available today. A prototype "electronic paper" display screen has been produced by E Ink; the entire display, including the substrate, is just 0.3 millimeters (about half the thickness of a credit card).
| Bud took a seat and skimmed a mediatron from the coffee table; it looked exactly like a dirty, wrinkled, blank sheet of paper. "'Annals of Self-Protection,'" he said, loud enough for everyone else in the place to hear him. The logo of his favorite meedfeed coalesced on the page. Mediaglyphics, mostly the cool animated ones, arranged themselves in a grid. Bud scanned through them until he found the one that denoted a comparison of a bunch of different stuff, and snapped at it with his fingernail. New mediaglyphics appeared, surrounding larger pictures in which Annals staff tested several models of skull guns against live and dead targets. |
| From The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
An E Ink display consists of a thin plastic film on which millions of tiny microcapsules are deposited. The microcapsules are filled with dark and light particles which carry opposite electric charges. This sheet is, in turn, bonded to steel foil. Depending on the direction of an electric field from the steel foil transistor substrate, either the dark or the light particles are drawn to the surface, generating a pixel of that color.
Be sure to see the news story Philips Active-Matrix Rollable Display to see prototypes of this very technovelgy item.
Compare to the palimpscreen from The Mountain in the Sea (2022) by Ray Naylor and the memo-voice from War Game (1959) by Philip K. Dick.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Diamond Age
More Ideas
and Technology by Neal Stephenson
Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson
Mediatron-related
news articles:
- Siemens Working On Stephenson's 'Mediatron'
- A4-Sized Color E-Paper Unrolled By Philips
- E-Paper By Bridgestone: Ultrathin And Supersized
- Philips Flexible E-Paper World's Highest Resolution
- Disposable E-Readers?
- Sony Flexible Color E-Paper
- Interactive Storytelling On iPad
- Flexible E-Paper Finally Coming Out!
- When Do I Get My Cheap, Flexible Touchscreen?
- Store Electricity In Paper - Next Stop, E-Paper!
| Augmented Reality Book Covers Reveal The Inner Book |
| TCL CSOT 17-Inch Printed OLED Scrolling Display |
| Looking Glass Display Good Enough For Science Fiction, Fantasy |
| LG Wing Twisting Smartphone Might Be Fun |
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'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
