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"[Science fiction is] an integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious."
- Gregory Benford

Digital Ink License Plate  
  License tags that can change both state and number in the blink of an eye.  

Slick implementation of this idea with near-future technology. How can you alter your license plate without leaving your car?

Gragg motioned with one black-gloved hand... Gragg's digital ink license plates flicked from California to Oregon vanity tags that read GECCO...
Technovelgy from Daemon, by Daniel Suarez.
Published by Dutton in 2006
Additional resources -

When I read about this, I immediately thought to the same idea implemented with futuristic 1941-style technology in Robert Heinlein's novel Methuselah's Children; see the entry for alterable license number.

I seem to recall that 007 had something similar, but with a rotating "drum" of plates, in the 1960's.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Daemon
  More Ideas and Technology by Daniel Suarez
  Tech news articles related to Daemon
  Tech news articles related to works by Daniel Suarez

Digital Ink License Plate-related news articles:
  - Electronic License Plates For California By Smart Plate Mobile
  - Rplate Digital License Plates Now Legal In Michigan

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Science Fiction in the News

Thermostabilized Wet Meat Product (NASA Prototype)
There are no orbiting Michelin stars. Yet.

Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'

India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.'

Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'

Is It Time To Forbid Human Driving?
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'

Replace The Smartphone With A Connected Edge Node For AI Inference
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'

Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'

Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.

Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'

More SF in the News

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