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"To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer."
- Robert Heinlein
 |
| Wende | ||
| A change, a turning point, a reversal of culture and politics. |
In German, die Wende describes the era surrounding the falling of the Berlin Wall and the period preceding reunification.
Sterling says this in the story:
Eddy nodded soberly. “Wendes are very interesting phenomena. CAP- CLUG is studying Wendes. We might like to throw one some day.”
“That’s not how Wendes happen, Eddy. You don’t ‘throw’ a Wende.” Sardelle paused, considering. “A Wende throws you.”
Americans might compare it to the mass demonstrations protesting the Vietnam war in the 1960's.
“But strange things happen during a Wende.”
| “But none of those events by itself sounds all that threatening or serious.” “Not each thing by itself, Eddy, no. But it all happens all at once. That’s what a Wende is like.” “I don’t get it,” Eddy said. He put his spex back on and lit the menu from within, with a fingersnap. He tapped the spex menu-bar with his right fingertip and light-amplifiers kicked in. The passing crowd, their outlines shimmering slightly from computational effects, seemed to be strolling through an overlit stage-set. “I guess there’s trouble coming from all these outsiders,” Eddy said, “but the Germans themselves seem so . . . well ... so good-natured and tidy and civilized. Why do they even have Wendes?” “It’s not something we plan, Eddy. It’s just something that happens to us.” Sardelle sipped her coffee. “How could this happen and not be planned?” “Well, we knew it was coming, of course. Of course we knew that. Word gets around. 'That’s how Wendes start.” She straightened her napkin. “You can ask the Critic, when you meet him. He talks a lot about Wendes. He knows as much as anyone, I think.” “Yeah, I’ve read him,” Eddy said. “He says that it’s rumor, boosted by electronic and digital media, in a feedback-loop with crowd dynamics and modem mass transportation. A nonlinear networking phenomenon. 'That much I understand!" |
| Technovelgy from Deep Eddy,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by Asimov's Science Fiction in 1993 Additional resources -
|
Compare to a flash crowd (flash mob) from Flash Crowd (1972) by Larry Niven.
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| Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million |
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| Chinese Hospital Tries Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' Cosplay |
| A Remarkable Coincidence |
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'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
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't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
