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"I've come across more and more people who've actually tried reading science fiction and can't make it make sense."
- Samuel R. Delany
 |
| Filing Crystal | ||
| Part kiosk, part storage system. |
| Besides them, a twelve-foot filing crystal glowed like pin quartz. "Ron," said Rydra. "No, Ron and Calli, too."
The Navigators stepped up, puzzled. "You know some first navigator who suicided recently that you think we might—" Rydra shook her head. She passed her hand before the filing crystal. In the concaved screen at the base, words flashed. She stilled her fingers. "Navigator-Two. . . ." She turned her hand. "Navigator-One. . . ." She paused and ran her hand in a different direction.". . . male, male, male, female... Rydra watched, her hand drifting through centimeters over the crystal's face. The names on the screen flashed back and forth. Rydra's hand came down on the crystal face, and the name glowed on the screen. “Mollya Twa, Navigator-One." Her coordinate numbers followed. |
| From Babel-17,
by Samuel R. Delany. Published by Ace Books in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Regarding the use of gestures to manipulate an electronic device, compare to the hand wave control from Philip K. Dick's 1955 novel Solar Lottery and the gesture controlled devices in Douglas Adam's 1979 novel A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Babel-17
More Ideas
and Technology by Samuel R. Delany
Tech news articles related to Babel-17
Tech news articles related to works by Samuel R. Delany
Filing Crystal-related
news articles:
- eyeSight Gesture Control Of Android Phones
- Gesture-Controlled iPads?
- FingerIO Active Sonar Smartphone Finger Tracking
| Lonestar Offers Lunar Storage For Ultimate In Security |
| 100X Improvement In DNA Information Storage |
| Twist Bioscience High Density Digital Data On DNA |
| Store One Bit On One Atom |
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'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
'...the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers.'
'LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.'
'...a rolled-up sheet of a thin, dark metal strange to them.'
'... his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex.'
'Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal...'
With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
