Institutional Apparel: Averted. Pre-conviction, while the Empire will confine the accused, they don’t own the accused, who may, after all, be innocent as the day is long. So they get to keep their own clothing and other perquisites until the trial is done. (Post-conviction, since the Imperials don’t
Instant Sedation: It’s not the drug that makes it near-instant; it’s the active nanoencapsulation-and-transport that gets it where it needs to go to have effect.
Instant Emergency Response: As a side effect of the AI monitors on the raw feed mentioned under Big Brother Is Watching, which both make sure response is dispatched to observed crimes and accidents as they happen, and which are happy to use predictive algorithms to make sure that it’s
Instant AI, Just Add Water: Was once true in the old days, back when people were quite often using mental modules scanned, compiled, and tweaked from brain-scans of biosapiences in their AI architectures. The logos/personality organization algorithm is pretty damn resilient, and often such inexpertly designed modules carried at
It’s question-answering time here at the Eldraeverse! A reader writes: Two questions- 1) Is there a food item for the Eldrae that has assumed the same memetic status as bacon for humans? 2) What do the Eldrae find funny? What human comedians, if they were to go on tour
In Space Everyone Can See Your Face: Averted, for all the practical reasons mentioned. In practice, augmented reality v-tags – actually, the standard public identity tag – tell you who is who, and those who want to can use supplementary v-tags to indicate their current emotional state, etc., and perform other expressive
“Academician. Academician.” The foundry master wiped his hands on his leather apron, and waved at the looming bulk in the back of the workshop. “Your sky-tube’s coming along to plan. Just got the wire-wrapping on today. The woodwright’s’ll be here tomorrow to get the quarter-boards on her,
Insistent Terminology: Happens fairly often, because nomenclature (among other things) is Serious Business, and one therefore – when dealing with people – should know that people earned those attributions, dammit, and that therefore not using them (or misusing them) amounts to a deliberate insult. They would not, after all, presume to insult
For those who enjoy my work and feel good when they tip the author, we’ve got some exciting new Patreon rewards levels for you! (Right here.)
Insignificant Little Blue Planet: We already really handled this under Earth is the Center of the Universe, but I bring it up because of a discussion at TV Tropes of the problem, religiously speaking, of being a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of something incomprehensibly large with regard to theologies that
An interrogation room on Gálish (Sullen Wildlands): The local agents looked at each other, then back at my aquastor. “So, your perp has stolen this, this -” “Sixteen-petabit colonial tangle-channel ansible.” “Whatever, this trillion-exval widget, and according to your numbers he’s now running a negative-frequency trading scam with it
Inside a Computer System: Well, yes, this is how virtuality works; the computers simulate the entire environment in full fidelity – which, I hasten to add, means even more when you have to come up with appropriate outputs for all possible sensory ranges of your polyspecific clientele – and then your sensory-link