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Wireless cyberpunk

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  Wireless cyberpunk nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) - 2016-07-09 00:32 +0000
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk Don Kuenz <garbage@crcomp.net> - 2016-07-09 04:18 +0000
      Re: Wireless cyberpunk "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2016-07-09 09:24 -0400
        Re: Wireless cyberpunk "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2016-07-09 11:11 -0400
        Re: Wireless cyberpunk Jerry Brown <jerry@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> - 2016-07-09 16:23 +0100
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk Don Kuenz <garbage@crcomp.net> - 2016-07-09 04:59 +0000
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> - 2016-07-09 02:49 -0400
      Re: Wireless cyberpunk Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-07-09 10:46 -0600
        Re: Wireless cyberpunk Bill Gill <billnews2@cox.net> - 2016-07-09 17:30 -0500
          Re: Wireless cyberpunk Juho Julkunen <giaotanj@hotmail.com> - 2016-07-10 02:38 +0300
          Re: Wireless cyberpunk Sjouke Burry <burrynulnulfour@ppllaanneett.nnll> - 2016-07-10 02:51 +0200
            Re: Wireless cyberpunk Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2016-07-09 20:57 -0700
      Re: Wireless cyberpunk Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-07-11 09:30 -0700
        Re: Wireless cyberpunk Stephen Allcroft <stephenallcroft@lycos.co.uk> - 2016-07-19 08:46 -0700
          Re: Wireless cyberpunk Jerry Brown <jerry@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> - 2016-07-19 20:23 +0100
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-07-09 01:08 -0600
    Wireless cyberpunk Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> - 2016-07-09 06:12 -0700
      Re: Wireless cyberpunk Don Kuenz <garbage@crcomp.net> - 2016-07-09 19:25 +0000
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk Bill Gill <billnews2@cox.net> - 2016-07-09 08:22 -0500
      Re: Wireless cyberpunk Joe Bernstein <joe@sfbooks.com> - 2016-07-21 10:00 -0700
        Re: Wireless cyberpunk hamish.laws@gmail.com - 2016-07-21 18:14 -0700
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-07-09 10:41 -0600
      Re: Wireless cyberpunk "Gary R. Schmidt" <grschmidt@acm.org> - 2016-07-10 14:52 +1000
        Re: Wireless cyberpunk Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-07-10 20:31 -0600
          Re: Wireless cyberpunk Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> - 2016-07-10 21:27 -0700
    Re: Wireless cyberpunk David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-07-09 18:11 -0500

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#443747 — Wireless cyberpunk

        My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future 
cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all 
figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your 
keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody 
missed wireless.  

        So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have 
the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi 
was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially 
plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?  

        (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read 
'The Machine Stops'.)  

-- 
                                                                Joseph Nebus
 Math: Theorem Thursday: A First Fixed Point Theorem   http://wp.me/p1RYhY-12h
Humor: Stuff In Town That I Won't See                  http://wp.me/p37lb5-1h7 
--------------------------------------------------------+---------------------

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#443772

Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>        My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
> missed wireless.
>
>        So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>
>        (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
> 'The Machine Stops'.)

Do Golden Age robots count? In Asimov's "Catch that Rabbit" a main robot
uses positronic fields to Command, Control, and Communicate (C3) with
six "finger" robots.

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU

  Embryonic, zoonic,
  Tectonic, cyclonic,
We humans are never humane,
  Explosion, erosion,
  Corrosion, implosion-
And back into Chaos again!

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#443805

On 7/9/16 12:18 AM, Don Kuenz wrote:
> Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>>        My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
>> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
>> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
>> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
>> missed wireless.
>>
>>        So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
>> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
>> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
>> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>>
>>        (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
>> 'The Machine Stops'.)


	Brian Daley's Floyt/Fitzhugh trilogy featured a pervasive wireless 
network interfaced with wrist or pocket-carried "proteuses" that 
basically were smartphones on steroids, many including self-aware AIs to 
assist their users (SIRI but actually functional).


-- 
                      Sea Wasp
                        /^\
                        ;;;	
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com  Blog: 
http://seawasp.livejournal.com

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#443807

On 7/9/16 9:24 AM, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:
> On 7/9/16 12:18 AM, Don Kuenz wrote:
>> Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>>>        My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
>>> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
>>> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
>>> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
>>> missed wireless.
>>>
>>>        So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
>>> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
>>> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
>>> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>>>
>>>        (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
>>> 'The Machine Stops'.)
>
>
>     Brian Daley's Floyt/Fitzhugh trilogy featured a pervasive wireless
> network interfaced with wrist or pocket-carried "proteuses" that
> basically were smartphones on steroids, many including self-aware AIs to
> assist their users (SIRI but actually functional).
>
>

	Oh, forgot to note, first book in 1985.


-- 
                      Sea Wasp
                        /^\
                        ;;;	
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com  Blog: 
http://seawasp.livejournal.com

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#443812

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 09:24:06 -0400, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
<seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:

>On 7/9/16 12:18 AM, Don Kuenz wrote:
>> Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>>>        My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
>>> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
>>> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
>>> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
>>> missed wireless.
>>>
>>>        So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
>>> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
>>> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
>>> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>>>
>>>        (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
>>> 'The Machine Stops'.)
>
>
>	Brian Daley's Floyt/Fitzhugh trilogy featured a pervasive wireless 
>network interfaced with wrist or pocket-carried "proteuses" that 
>basically were smartphones on steroids, many including self-aware AIs to 
>assist their users (SIRI but actually functional).

There was a New Outer Limits where most people hooked into "The
Stream" to get any information they needed (can't remember if they had
external devices or surgical implants). One character is ridiculed for
not using it and still relying on books, until... (need I go on?).

-- 
Jerry Brown

A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)

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#443774

Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>        My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
> missed wireless.
>
>        So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>
>        (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
> 'The Machine Stops'.)

_Psychohistorical Crisis_ by Kingsbury, which was published in 2001,
falls slightly outside of your 80s or 90s criteria.  The story uses
semi-organic "fams" to enhance cogitation. People tune their fams to the
"main computer mind."

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU

Titus FitzImmeter
Said, "The Planimeter
  Agoragraphs a vicinity."
Herein he was right,
But he scarcely shed light
  On the Circular Points at Infinity.

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#443783

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 00:32:25 +0000 (UTC), Joseph Nebus
<nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote
in<news:nlpgmp$9lb$1@reader1.panix.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did*
> have the insight that while cyberspace might be great,
> cyberspace over Wi-Fi was better?  Who used the idea
> well?  Who used it in superficially plausible but in
> retrospect hilariously bad ways?  

From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
(1996):

   He reached up to his neck, fondling the new wireless 
   connector, a birthday gift he had bought himself 
   through mail order.  The telematic jack was light 
   and almost unnoticeable--all that showed was a 
   rounded white plastic button fitted over the top 
   of his neurocannula.  It seemed to work as well as 
   the reviews had suggested, and it was an incredible 
   pleasure to be able to go online without being tied 
   to a cable.

Both the demis and the cybs in Modesitt’s _Adiamante_
(1996) also have versions of it, though what stands out
most in that book is its use for quasi-telepathic
communication.

I am almost certain that I saw the idea before that.  I’ve
a dim memory of a setting in which people had wireless
connections to an internet on steroids, with degree and
quality of access dependent on wealth or status; losing
access altogether was catastrophic.  I seem to remember a
somewhat glittering society with a lot of superficial
sophisticates largely oblivious of its uglier
underpinnings.  Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything
about the plot, save that it involved some crime or crimes.

Brian
-- 
It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their
holes to root for sandtatties.  The waves whispered
rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,
haggisss.

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#443815

"Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> wrote:

>From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
>(1996):

>I am almost certain that I saw the idea before that.  I’ve
>a dim memory of a setting in which people had wireless
>connections to an internet on steroids, with degree and
>quality of access dependent on wealth or status; losing
>access altogether was catastrophic. 

I think that 1981 is a bit more recent than the question was looking
for, but Oath of Fealty has wireless implants at about $2M each (would
be maybe $10 to $15M now with inflation).  But they're used mostly for
phone calls and information lookup, without the social networking we
take for granted now.  They seemed to have about a half mile range,
which is a bit further than WiFi gets us.
-- 
We are geeks.  Resistance is voltage over current.

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#443840

On 7/9/2016 11:46 AM, Greg Goss wrote:
> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>
>>From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
>> (1996):
>
>> I am almost certain that I saw the idea before that.  I’ve
>> a dim memory of a setting in which people had wireless
>> connections to an internet on steroids, with degree and
>> quality of access dependent on wealth or status; losing
>> access altogether was catastrophic.
>
> I think that 1981 is a bit more recent than the question was looking
> for, but Oath of Fealty has wireless implants at about $2M each (would
> be maybe $10 to $15M now with inflation).  But they're used mostly for
> phone calls and information lookup, without the social networking we
> take for granted now.  They seemed to have about a half mile range,
> which is a bit further than WiFi gets us.
>
That of course is one problem I see with implants.  How do
you upgrade to get a better implant?

Bill

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#443848

In article <nlrtu8$28d$1@dont-email.me>, billnews2@cox.net says...

> >
> That of course is one problem I see with implants.  How do
> you upgrade to get a better implant?

In the usual fashion, I guess?

-- 
Juho Julkunen

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#443853

On 10.07.16 0:30, Bill Gill wrote:
> On 7/9/2016 11:46 AM, Greg Goss wrote:
>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>>
>> >From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
>>> (1996):
>>
>>> I am almost certain that I saw the idea before that.  I’ve
>>> a dim memory of a setting in which people had wireless
>>> connections to an internet on steroids, with degree and
>>> quality of access dependent on wealth or status; losing
>>> access altogether was catastrophic.
>>
>> I think that 1981 is a bit more recent than the question was looking
>> for, but Oath of Fealty has wireless implants at about $2M each (would
>> be maybe $10 to $15M now with inflation).  But they're used mostly for
>> phone calls and information lookup, without the social networking we
>> take for granted now.  They seemed to have about a half mile range,
>> which is a bit further than WiFi gets us.
>>
> That of course is one problem I see with implants.  How do
> you upgrade to get a better implant?
>
> Bill
>
Update the software like M$ does with win10??   :)

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#443889

On 7/9/2016 5:51 PM, Sjouke Burry wrote:
> On 10.07.16 0:30, Bill Gill wrote:
>> On 7/9/2016 11:46 AM, Greg Goss wrote:
>>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> >From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
>>>> (1996):
>>>
>>>> I am almost certain that I saw the idea before that.  I’ve
>>>> a dim memory of a setting in which people had wireless
>>>> connections to an internet on steroids, with degree and
>>>> quality of access dependent on wealth or status; losing
>>>> access altogether was catastrophic.
>>>
>>> I think that 1981 is a bit more recent than the question was looking
>>> for, but Oath of Fealty has wireless implants at about $2M each (would
>>> be maybe $10 to $15M now with inflation).  But they're used mostly for
>>> phone calls and information lookup, without the social networking we
>>> take for granted now.  They seemed to have about a half mile range,
>>> which is a bit further than WiFi gets us.
>>>
>> That of course is one problem I see with implants.  How do
>> you upgrade to get a better implant?
>>
>> Bill
>>
> Update the software like M$ does with win10??   :)

Gives "blue screen of death" a whole 'nother meaning.

-- 
Running the rec.arts.TV Channels Watched Survey for Summer 2016

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#444106

On Saturday, 9 July 2016 07:49:31 UTC+1, Brian M. Scott  wrote:
> On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 00:32:25 +0000 (UTC), Joseph Nebus
> <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote
> in<news:nlpgmp$9lb$1@reader1.panix.com> in
> rec.arts.sf.written:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did*
> > have the insight that while cyberspace might be great,
> > cyberspace over Wi-Fi was better?  Who used the idea
> > well?  Who used it in superficially plausible but in
> > retrospect hilariously bad ways?  
> 
> From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
> (1996):
> 
>    He reached up to his neck, fondling the new wireless 
>    connector, a birthday gift he had bought himself 
>    through mail order.  The telematic jack was light 
>    and almost unnoticeable--all that showed was a 
>    rounded white plastic button fitted over the top 
>    of his neurocannula.  It seemed to work as well as 
>    the reviews had suggested, and it was an incredible 
>    pleasure to be able to go online without being tied 
>    to a cable.
> 
> Both the demis and the cybs in Modesitt’s _Adiamante_
> (1996) also have versions of it, though what stands out
> most in that book is its use for quasi-telepathic
> communication.

It's 2016 and your standard wireless mouse still comes 
with a USB plug for your PC, instead of Bluetooth - 
which you can also get (Microsoft's "BlueTrack Technology"
IS NOT BLUETOOTH, it means the mouse lights up blue).

The USB plug could /be/ Bluetooth for a PC that doesn't
have it - but clearly it is not.

The Borg in Star Trek enjoyed wireless comms although 
they also plugged in for large data transfers and to charge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Mudd> in 1960s Trek
was androids doing it.  Human-ish people were doing it
in <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Archons>
but again they were the antagonists.

And from 1967 onwards, these guys:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumarest_saga#Cyclan>

The <†https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberman> army 
was shown in 1968 to be directed by a stationary 
(and malicious?) "Cyber-Planner".

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#444981

On Monday, 11 July 2016 17:30:43 UTC+1, Robert Carnegie  wrote:
> On Saturday, 9 July 2016 07:49:31 UTC+1, Brian M. Scott  wrote:
> > On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 00:32:25 +0000 (UTC), Joseph Nebus
> > <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote
> > in<news:nlpgmp$9lb$1@reader1.panix.com> in
> > rec.arts.sf.written:
> > 
> > [...]
> > 
> > > So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did*
> > > have the insight that while cyberspace might be great,
> > > cyberspace over Wi-Fi was better?  Who used the idea
> > > well?  Who used it in superficially plausible but in
> > > retrospect hilariously bad ways?  
> > 
> > From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
> > (1996):
> > 
> >    He reached up to his neck, fondling the new wireless 
> >    connector, a birthday gift he had bought himself 
> >    through mail order.  The telematic jack was light 
> >    and almost unnoticeable--all that showed was a 
> >    rounded white plastic button fitted over the top 
> >    of his neurocannula.  It seemed to work as well as 
> >    the reviews had suggested, and it was an incredible 
> >    pleasure to be able to go online without being tied 
> >    to a cable.
> > 
> > Both the demis and the cybs in Modesitt’s _Adiamante_
> > (1996) also have versions of it, though what stands out
> > most in that book is its use for quasi-telepathic
> > communication.
> 
> It's 2016 and your standard wireless mouse still comes 
> with a USB plug for your PC, instead of Bluetooth - 
> which you can also get (Microsoft's "BlueTrack Technology"
> IS NOT BLUETOOTH, it means the mouse lights up blue).
> 
> The USB plug could /be/ Bluetooth for a PC that doesn't
> have it - but clearly it is not.
> 
> The Borg in Star Trek enjoyed wireless comms although 
> they also plugged in for large data transfers and to charge.
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Mudd> in 1960s Trek
> was androids doing it.  Human-ish people were doing it
> in <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Archons>
> but again they were the antagonists.
> 
> And from 1967 onwards, these guys:
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumarest_saga#Cyclan>
> 
> The <†https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberman> army 
> was shown in 1968 to be directed by a stationary 
> (and malicious?) "Cyber-Planner".

The Culture seem to be chronic users of always-on devices either on or about themselves or internalised.  Note the throwaway line in The Player of Games about folk tales about something nasty happening if you lose your connection...

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#445015

On Tue, 19 Jul 2016 08:46:20 -0700 (PDT), Stephen Allcroft
<stephenallcroft@lycos.co.uk> wrote:

>On Monday, 11 July 2016 17:30:43 UTC+1, Robert Carnegie  wrote:
>> On Saturday, 9 July 2016 07:49:31 UTC+1, Brian M. Scott  wrote:
>> > On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 00:32:25 +0000 (UTC), Joseph Nebus
>> > <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote
>> > in<news:nlpgmp$9lb$1@reader1.panix.com> in
>> > rec.arts.sf.written:
>> > 
>> > [...]
>> > 
>> > > So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did*
>> > > have the insight that while cyberspace might be great,
>> > > cyberspace over Wi-Fi was better?  Who used the idea
>> > > well?  Who used it in superficially plausible but in
>> > > retrospect hilariously bad ways?  
>> > 
>> > From Tad Williams’ _Otherland: City of Golden Shadow_
>> > (1996):
>> > 
>> >    He reached up to his neck, fondling the new wireless 
>> >    connector, a birthday gift he had bought himself 
>> >    through mail order.  The telematic jack was light 
>> >    and almost unnoticeable--all that showed was a 
>> >    rounded white plastic button fitted over the top 
>> >    of his neurocannula.  It seemed to work as well as 
>> >    the reviews had suggested, and it was an incredible 
>> >    pleasure to be able to go online without being tied 
>> >    to a cable.
>> > 
>> > Both the demis and the cybs in Modesitt’s _Adiamante_
>> > (1996) also have versions of it, though what stands out
>> > most in that book is its use for quasi-telepathic
>> > communication.
>> 
>> It's 2016 and your standard wireless mouse still comes 
>> with a USB plug for your PC, instead of Bluetooth - 
>> which you can also get (Microsoft's "BlueTrack Technology"
>> IS NOT BLUETOOTH, it means the mouse lights up blue).
>> 
>> The USB plug could /be/ Bluetooth for a PC that doesn't
>> have it - but clearly it is not.
>> 
>> The Borg in Star Trek enjoyed wireless comms although 
>> they also plugged in for large data transfers and to charge.
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Mudd> in 1960s Trek
>> was androids doing it.  Human-ish people were doing it
>> in <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Archons>
>> but again they were the antagonists.
>> 
>> And from 1967 onwards, these guys:
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumarest_saga#Cyclan>
>> 
>> The <†https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberman> army 
>> was shown in 1968 to be directed by a stationary 
>> (and malicious?) "Cyber-Planner".
>
>The Culture seem to be chronic users of always-on devices either on or about themselves or internalised.  Note the throwaway line in The Player of Games about folk tales about something nasty happening if you lose your connection...

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series has a computer virus which
wreaked havoc on both hardware and humans (due to the number of
implants they have). Options are a) die, b) make do without the
implants, or c) travel around in sealed Dalek-like travel units.

-- 
Jerry Brown

A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)

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#443787

On 7/8/2016 6:32 PM, Joseph Nebus wrote:
>         My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
> missed wireless.
>
>         So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>
>         (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
> 'The Machine Stops'.)
>

For Marvel's cyberpunk-influenced 2099 setting, there was one character 
who special ability was his capacity to function perfectly normally 
while remotely accessing the VR net all the time.  While I wasn't all 
that impressed, he WAS sorting out two totally separate sets of sensory 
impressions all the time.

In Ghost In the Shell, the cyborgs communicate pseudo-telepathically 
with each other using Wi-Fi.

Of course there's an inherent problem in using wi-fi in a cyberpunk 
setting.  Cyberpunk is usually paranoid.  Any person who is using using 
wi-fi is advertising his location to anything in the vicinity that has 
radio-scanning capability.

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#443802

I think it was an article in OMNI where I first encountered the idea that implanted interface and radio would be machine-aided telepathy, so that would be on the cusp of _Neuromancer_.

Heh. 1979, the novelizationof Star Trek: The Motion Picture had Kirk with a communications implant.  As to how great wireless is, he gets a tweet from Starfleet -with video, even- and has to leave off what he's doing to go off somewhere he can concentrate on it.

-- 
-Jack

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#443827

Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it was an article in OMNI where I first encountered the idea
> that implanted interface and radio would be machine-aided telepathy,
> so that would be on the cusp of _Neuromancer_.
>
> Heh. 1979, the novelizationof Star Trek: The Motion Picture had Kirk
> with a communications implant.  As to how great wireless is, he gets a
> tweet from Starfleet -with video, even- and has to leave off what he's
> doing to go off somewhere he can concentrate on it.

Speaking of Shat, Ron Goulart's TekWar franchise seems like it ought to
use WiFi Inet access somewhere along the way, but no such luck. :( A
furious forced speed reread reveals a few WiFi holograms amid a clutter
of robots and androids.

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU

  Automation
  Is vexation,
Quaternions are bad;
  Analysis Situs
  Is only detritus,
I wonder: Have I been had?

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#443804

On 7/8/2016 7:32 PM, Joseph Nebus wrote:
>         My love mentioned how you could really tell some near-future
> cybershenanigans story was written in the 80s or 90s because they all
> figured we'd have to jack in to stuff.  Plug in your phone, your
> keyboard, your brain.  Wires everywhere.  My love asked how everybody
> missed wireless.
>
>         So I would like to explore my ignorance here.  Who *did* have
> the insight that while cyberspace might be great, cyberspace over Wi-Fi
> was better?  Who used the idea well?  Who used it in superficially
> plausible but in retrospect hilariously bad ways?
>
>         (I will accept a broad concept of Wi-Fi.  Yes, I have read
> 'The Machine Stops'.)
>
Dorothy J. Heydt in 1999 wrote "Point of Honor".  Virtual reality
required surgical installation of a set of plugs to connect to the
computers used to run simulations,but right at the end somebody was
trying the newest thing, a wireless connection to the computers.

James Alan Gardner's "League of Peoples" series has a widely
interconnected, by 'wifi' world.  In "Vigilant" the protagonist
has a direct connection to the worlds networks using an implanted
connector.

Of course both of these are late 90's.  So the general idea was
starting to take off by this time.

Bill

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#445326

On Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 6:22:36 AM UTC-7, Bill Gill wrote:

> Of course both of these are late 90's.  So the general idea was
> starting to take off by this time.

I'm pretty sure Spider Robinson had wireless this and that going back 
more or less to the beginning of his career, but not positive.  (The 
only thing I'm sure of is that the electronic drug in "God Is an Iron" 
and <Mindkiller> is wired.)  I doubt he was ever all that technically 
innovative, so that suggests it was there to imitate in the mid-1970s.

Joe Bernstein

-- 
Joe Bernstein, writer and tax preparer                 <joe@sfbooks.com>

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