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"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Doublethink | ||
| A mental discipline that is an exact contradiction to the basic principles of scientific inquiry. |
This term is one of Orwell's most important contributions to our understanding of ourselves. Work in a large organization for a while (including "Big Science"), and see if this technique isn't a real artifact of the twentieth century.
| "To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink." |
| From 1984,
by George Orwell. Published by Unknown in 1948 Additional resources -
|
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- Chinese Netizens Demand Info To Achieve Doublethink
| Indian Court Says Brain Scan Proves Murder |
| Background Draw-a-Secret (BDAS) Makes Graphical Passwords |
| ID-U Biometrics Eye Tracking Signature |
| PCASS And The Original Handheld Lie Detector |
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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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It's time we started to get rid of that distinction between metal and flesh, and IC and neuron, don't you think?
'...a wide sheet of clear material suddenly flared with light and swirling color.'
'Transmitting to its manipulator, far away now, all that it heard through its ear microphones...'
'I had a small can of powdered alcohol disguised as tooth powder...'
'The jeweled hands clutching drinks (and the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers)...'
'It cut her out of the stream of vehicles and reduced the speed of her car...'
