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"We were essentially being shell-shocked by rapid change. That was one of the things you needed science-fiction writers for back in the Sixties, because we could cope with the future."
- Peter Watts
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| Personal Metallic Record Disc | ||
| A stamped metal record that contains all of a person's data in a convenient form. |
| I sat down in the chair, surrounded by delicate looking apparatus that was meaningless to me. The recorder adjusted a long tube that arched over my head. Suddenly, it glowed dully, and crackled with a high pitched note, continuing so for five minutes during which the recorder tabulated the readings of various instruments arranged in a bank.
 (From The Ancient Brain, 1929) He took the data and typed on the typing machine which in reality was a machine for photoelectrically recording the data on wire. When referred to, it was to be run through a revisualizing instrument which permitted one to see the particular datum desired. Jak explained that this method of filing took up very little room. Next, my examiner placed rings on my wrists and took accurate data on the state of health of my body, as Jak afterward told me. Finally, he handed me a stamped metallic disk. “That is all, sir. Your name has been registered as William 55203NL484 — it is on your stamp here. I found that you possess a large potential intelligence, and that health is excellent. I sincerely hope that you adjust yourself successfully to this world. And it will not be difficult with such wonderful assets." |
| Technovelgy from The Ancient Brain,
by A.G. Stangland. Published by Science Wonder Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the identification ring from Sinister Barrier (1939) by Eric Frank Russell, feeler-planes and the trip-type record from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.
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'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
