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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge
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| Dustplug | ||
| A cover specially made to protect one's microsoft socket; a tongue retainer for your brain. |
Since the socket for a microsoft (a small piece of electronics that is hardware, software and content all in one) is implanted directly into your brain tissue, I think that it is appropriate to take proper care of it when not in use.
There also may be particular social contexts in which one might not want to flaunt one's wired status.
| Among the dozen-odd microsofts the Dutchman had given him was one that would allow a limited fluency in Spanish, but in Vallarta he'd fumbled behind his left ear and inserted a dustplug instead, hiding the socket and plug beneath a square of flesh-tone micropore. A passenger near the back of the bus had a radio. A voice had periodically interrupted the brassy pop to recite a kind of litany, strings of ten-digit figures, the day's winning numbers in the national lottery. |
| Technovelgy from Count Zero,
by William Gibson. Published by Arbor House in 1986 Additional resources -
|
The original analog to a dustplug is a special flesh-colored earring that both conceals the hole in your ear and keeps it from closing up.
The more modern version is an acrylic tongue retainer, used to hide your tongue piercing while keeping the hole open. (BTW, you can get them in both flesh color and clear.) For use before your interview with that big zaibatsu you always wanted to work for.
You'll need one of these if you get a carbon socket to allow you to slot extra firmware into your brain - see microsoft from Gibson's Neuromancer.
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'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
