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"I think we could solve our problems more easily through strength of character; but that's always been a commodity in extremely short supply."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Adnix | ||
| A device that muted the television to lessen the impact of commercials. |
Billionaire S.R. Hadden made his money the old-fashioned way; he uncovered services that people wanted, and he developed technology to give it to them.
| Years before, he had invented a module that, when a television commercial appeared, automatically muted the sound. It wasn't at first a context-recognition device. Instead, it simply monitored the amplitude of the carrier wave... Before there could be any coordinated response from the television advertising industry, Adnix had become wildly popular. It forced advertisers and networks into new choices of carrier-wave strategy, each of which Hadden countered with a new invention... It was a kind of electronic warfare. And he was winning. |
| Technovelgy from Contact,
by Carl Sagan. Published by Not known in 1985 Additional resources -
|
The networks were not satisfied with mere technical challenges to their supremacy, of course:
Thanks to Randall Glenn for pointing this item out.
They tried to sue him - something about a conspiracy in restraint of trade...
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
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'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'You're a stable, rock-bottom mining robot, except that you're equipped to handle six subsidiaries in direct coordination...'
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
'It radiates outward in a cone which, by the time it has reached our section of space, is many lightyears across.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock.'
'... with a weird simulation of life, the ten forked ends of each arm commenced a rattling pressing of the buttons.'
'Each of the four areas is enclosed by a sonic wall...'
