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Chalk another one up for Vernor Vinge. This tech seems like it could directly enable the “ubiquitous surveillance” from _A Deepness in the Sky_. Definitely some

Chalk another one up for Vernor Vinge. This tech seems like it could directly enable the “ubiquitous surveillance” from _A Deepness in the Sky_. Definitely something to watch closely.

arethuza 2y ago
I wonder if someone tried to build a localizer how small they could actually be made? PS It's "Vernor"
- mwigdahl 2y ago
  Thanks, I typed that on my phone and it "fixed" it for me without me noticing.
- cmpb 2y ago
  The other side to the localizers is the communication / mesh networking, and the extremely effective security partitioning. Even Anne couldn't crack them! It's certainly a lot to package in such a small form
ben_w 2y ago
I've been interested in smart dust for a while; recently the news seems to have dried up, and while that may have been other stuff taking up all the attention (and investment money), I suspect that many R&D teams went under government NDAs because they are now good enough to be interesting.
12907835202 2y ago
I haven't read deepness in the sky but it's interesting how wrong alot of scifi got this. Cameras are always considerably bigger than grains of sand
- cmpb 2y ago
  Well, Deepness is set a few thousand years in the future, so we've got some time to work on it.
KineticLensman 2y ago
Also the scatterable surveillance cameras used in his other great novel, 'The Peace War' [0]. Although IIRC they were the size of seeds or similar. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War
- EdwardCoffin 2y ago
  3 or 4 mm in diameter, according to a scene in chapter 6, big enough to have similar resolution to that of a human eye, according to Paul, but able to look in any direction without physically rotating. In chapter 13 the enemy describes them as using Fourier optics, though that seemed to be their speculation - not sure whether it was right.
gcanyon 2y ago
Or Rudy Rucker’s Postsingular, where the “orphidnet” utility fog enables universal perception/visualization.
aredox 2y ago
"Light of Other Days"/"Other Days, Other Eyes" by Bob Shaw is much closer - and poignant - take on that idea.

Chalk another one up for Vernor Vinge. This tech seems like it could directly enable the “ubiquitous surveillance” from _A Deepness in the Sky_. Definitely something to watch closely.

arethuza 2y ago

I wonder if someone tried to build a localizer how small they could actually be made? PS It's "Vernor"

mwigdahl 2y ago
Thanks, I typed that on my phone and it "fixed" it for me without me noticing.
cmpb 2y ago
The other side to the localizers is the communication / mesh networking, and the extremely effective security partitioning. Even Anne couldn't crack them! It's certainly a lot to package in such a small form

ben_w 2y ago

I've been interested in smart dust for a while; recently the news seems to have dried up, and while that may have been other stuff taking up all the attention (and investment money), I suspect that many R&D teams went under government NDAs because they are now good enough to be interesting.

12907835202 2y ago

I haven't read deepness in the sky but it's interesting how wrong alot of scifi got this. Cameras are always considerably bigger than grains of sand

cmpb 2y ago
Well, Deepness is set a few thousand years in the future, so we've got some time to work on it.

KineticLensman 2y ago

Also the scatterable surveillance cameras used in his other great novel, 'The Peace War' [0]. Although IIRC they were the size of seeds or similar. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War

EdwardCoffin 2y ago
3 or 4 mm in diameter, according to a scene in chapter 6, big enough to have similar resolution to that of a human eye, according to Paul, but able to look in any direction without physically rotating. In chapter 13 the enemy describes them as using Fourier optics, though that seemed to be their speculation - not sure whether it was right.

gcanyon 2y ago

Or Rudy Rucker’s Postsingular, where the “orphidnet” utility fog enables universal perception/visualization.

aredox 2y ago

"Light of Other Days"/"Other Days, Other Eyes" by Bob Shaw is much closer - and poignant - take on that idea.