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"Science fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together."
- Ray Bradbury
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| Spotcast | ||
| A new form of one-to-many communication. |
I don't think anyone is really using this as a word; it's strangely evocative of podcasting or Periscope or other technology that let's one person speak to many.
And maybe the powerful would rather they didn't.
| “I was thinking about a columnist... Tenning.”
She shrugged. “I know about him. He isn’t with the Star now. He spotcasts.” “That’s... a radio—” “Not any more. Tenning’s a hot shot now, Dave. Everybody listens to him.” “What does he talk about?” “Gossip. And politics. People listen — ” Yeah, people listen to that dirty ringer, and he moulds public opinion. He moulds it the way the big boys want. That’s why they grabbed me in nineteen forty-five. I wasn’t at the top then, but I had the public ear. I was getting good audience reactions. Spotting key men to work out their plan for them — Ringers, doppelgangers, in the right places. Painless psychology, sugar-coated propaganda. And a world moving, leaving Dave Tenning behind, a simply immense sphere beginning to turn from its course, gathering momentum as a thousand doppelgangers shoved it along. |
| Technovelgy from The Little Things,
by Henry Kuttner. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1946 Additional resources -
|
Compare to True-vu lenses from Earth (1990) by David Brin, fido from Riders of the Purple Wage (1967) by Philip Jose Farmer and Newstaper Gear from Flash Crowd (1972) by Larry Niven. See also the televisor from Newscast (1939) by Harl Vincent.
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Tech news articles related to works by Henry Kuttner
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
