"Mack Reynolds - Equality in the Year 2000" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

"Briefly. You talk into it and it types up what you say."
"There's more to it. I'm continually surprised, Jule, at your lack of
knowledge of what was developing back in the 1960s and '70s, right under
your nose. Most of what we have now in technological developments go
back to your era, though I acknowledge it takes time—less so now than
before—to bring a new breakthrough into widespread use. For instance,
the basic facts of nuclear fission were known at least a decade before
Einstein wrote President Roosevelt that an atomic bomb was possible:"
"What in the dickens has this to do with my taking notes with my
stylo?" Julian asked.
"I was leading up to the fact that even in your day, the voco-typer, the
computer data banks, and the computer translators were already in
embryo."
"Go on."
She indicated the voco-typer that sat to one side of him on the desk.
"They've all been amalgamated. You speak your notes into the voco-typer.
It is connected to the data banks; your notes are recorded and you can
check back on them any time you wish. And, if you desired, you could
record your notes in English now, and, after your Interlingua becomes
more fluent, have your notes played back to you in that language—or any
other language, for that matter."
"You mean that anyone at all can put anything he wants into the
International Data Banks?"
"Of course. No problem. You see, all you could possibly write in your
whole lifetime can be recorded on a disk no larger than your little
fingernail, and about as thick."
"Well, how long do they keep the record?"
"Forever. Fifty years from now, you might have some reason to check
back on some of the notes you take today. They'll be on file. Then there are
other aspects. Suppose, a century or two from now, some biographer
wishes to check back on your notes in order to do your life. There they are.
Can you imagine how some historian in your time would have loved to
have the notes of, say, Thomas Jefferson—made while he was composing
the Declaration of Independence? I suggest that you have Information
send you its material on filing and cross references. Speeds things up so
that you'll be able to check back more easily."
Julian said indignantly, "Just one minute. Suppose there's something in
my notes I don't want some goddamned biographer to see?"
"Don't be silly. Anything of yours in the data banks can be wiped any
time you wish. Your notes don't have to remain if you don't want them
there. Or you can simply make a requirement that they are available to no
one but you until such and such a date—or never."
"Suppose I'm out somewhere without a voco-typer handy?"
"Then simply record your material by voice into your transceiver,
ordering that it be put into the data banks in print."
He shook his head. "Every day, I realize all over again how much there is
for me to learn. Why, it'll take me the better part of my life to reach the
point you're at now. How about a drink, Edie?"
"I'll get it," she offered, rising. She headed to the auto-bar. "Scotch for
you, I suppose?"