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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Ego-Likeness | ||
| An extremely detailed portrait played through a shigawire projector; capable of reproducing minute movements said to convey the ego essence of a person. |
This is a remarkable idea; it is more than a portrait, and more than a recording of a person's mannerisms. It is a portrait which presents a likeness that is evocative of the person himself or herself. It would be a picture that would remain true regardless of how the person changed their external appearance with hair length or color, beard or no beard, and so forth. The impression given in the book is that this is an expensive process; only the wealthy can afford it.
| My father, the Padishah Emperor, took me by the hand one day and I sensed in the ways my mother had taught me that he was disturbed. He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides. I marked the strong resemblance between them--my father and this man in the portrait--both with thin, elegant faces and sharp features dominated by cold eyes. "Princess-daughter,"my father said, "I would that you'd been older when it came time for this man to choose a woman." My father was 71 at the time and looking no older than the man in the portrait, and I was but 14, yet I remember deducing in that instant that my father secretly wished the Duke had been his son, and disliked the political necessities that made them enemies. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
From the standpoint of technology, an ego-likeness is "portraiture reproduced through a shigawire projector that is capable of reproducing subtle movements said to convey the ego essence."
Dune, for all of its action and technology, is a deeply introspective work. Although various forms of consciousness are explored (including transcendent states), the ego of the person is important and is left intact.
See also construct, a kind of artificial intelligence program that comprises the personality of a person.
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"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
