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" I think that computers today allow us one last opportunity to provide something like a level playingfield in America."
- William Gibson
 |
| Microterm | ||
| A very small computer system. |
Probably a contraction of micro (or microcomputer) and terminal.
| "Now kids," he said quietly, "it's time for some serious fun." He whipped out his microterm. "School's off!"
I still drop a bit when I see that microterm--Geez, it's a beauty! It's a Zeilemann Nova 300, but we've spent so much time reworking it, it's practically custom from the motherboard up. Hi-baud, rammed, rammed, ported, with the wafer display folds down to about the size of a vid casette; I'd give an ear to have one like it. We'd used Georgie's old man's chipburner to tuck some special tricks in ROM and there wasn't a system in CityNet it couldn't talk to... Rayno folded up the microterm and tucked it back inside his jumper. |
| Technovelgy from Cyberpunk!,
by Bruce Bethke. Published by Amazing Stories in 1983 Additional resources -
|
The forward march of technology doesn't stop, not even in a short story:
I dropped a bit! Then I ballsed up enough to touch it. I flipped up the wafer display, ran my fingers over the touch pads, and I just wanted it so bad! "It's smart," Martin said. "Rammed, rammed, and ported."
Rayno was looking at the specs with that cold look in his eye. "My 300 is still faster," he said.
"It should be," Martin said. "You customized it half to death. But the 600 is nearly as fast, and it's stock, and it lists for $1400..."
Compare to the pocket phone from Assignment in Eternity (1953) by Robert Heinlein, the joymaker from The Age of the Pussyfoot (1966) by Frederik Pohl. the Newspad from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Arthur C. Clarke and the briefcase console from Oath of Fealty (1981) by Pournelle and Niven.
"Say, I just got something in the other day, I bet you'd be really interested in." He took me over to the display case, pulled it out, and set it on the counter. "The latest word in microterms. The Zeilemann Starfire 600."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Cyberpunk!
More Ideas
and Technology by Bruce Bethke
Tech news articles related to Cyberpunk!
Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Bethke
Microterm-related
news articles:
- Jetson Orin Nano Super 70 Just $249
| Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer |
| Cortex 1 - Today A Warehouse, Tomorrow A Calculator Planet |
| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
| Jetson Orin Nano Super 70 Just $249 |
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'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
