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"The first thing that's wrong with being a science-fiction writer today is that the present has caught up with the future and surpassed it."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Construct | ||
| A stored version of a person's particular skills and personal approaches to problems. |
One of the greatest hackers in the novel Neuromancer is a man named McCoy Pauley, also known at the Dixie Flatline. Unfortunately, Pauley was dead at the time of the novel; his skills were available in the form of a construct, an artificial intelligence in the shape of this man's skills.
| Molly had gone back to the loft hours ago, the Flatline's construct in her green bag, and Case had been drinking steadily ever since. It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct, a hardwired ROM cassette replicating a dead man's skills, obsessions, knee-jerk responses. |
| From Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
Pauley got his name by his remarkable capacity to persevere despite counter intrusion programs that could actually cause seizures and death. He flatlined on his EEG, and showed Case (the protagonist of the novel) the tapes. "Boy, I was daid."
For an elaborated (and very elegant) version of something very similar, see recorded personality, from Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive. See also the Neuro-netsukes from Rim (1994) by Alexander Besher.
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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'...lifted themselves to skimming flight upon whirling helicopters."
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I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along.
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.'
'... a sound tape to supply the noise'
'The spotter descends, and we think it searches the vicinity, looking for the victim's face...'
