New topic; What does the prosperous imperial citizen own that she/he
would find indispensible in conducting everyday life?
Identicard: The ATM/Credit Card gone wild. This thing opens doors, gets
cash, debits your bank account for purchases, has your complete medical
history (yeah I know, I got that from an AT&T commercial), will get you
access from any computer terminal to your private records, identifies
you indisputably. Less costly models have fingerprint scanner circuitry
built into the surface, more expensive ones use a chemical reaction which
is carefully tuned to identify your distinctive body chemistry. The real
cheap ones require a four to 10 digit security password. Some terminals
can accept voice ID or scan your retina, with the comparison data stored on
the card itself. Almost every security measure can be defeated, of course,
but mostly they're pretty good.
Personal Electronic Manager: Technology and fashion go hand in hand.
If you doubt
this I ask you to take a walk into your nearest Sharper Image store, or go
to a high priced business lunch place downtown and look for young men with
their cellular phones out making high-profile calls. In the imperial future
of tech fashion remember this; less is more. Implanted microphone and
speakers go into the jawbones of most every megacorp exec in the business.
along with this is the implant computer (doesn't matter where...inside a
titanium femur perhaps?). This thing acts as Personal information manager
extrodinaire, optimizes the comm signal with your multiplexer (actually the
only external component is a signal booster/receiver/antenna. Some have an
antenna replacing part of their anatomy-the titanium femur again?), networks
with local information resources, monitoring market information, location/
condition of competitors or allies in business, etc.
One limit to the implanted tech at TL15 I impose is in vision
systems. At TL15 people wear eyeglasses, not for vision correction, but
as binocular holographic projection medium (identical to the holographic
eyepiece which originally appeared in Grand Survey or Grand Census-but
with two eyepieces). Even TL15 doctors don't try to screw with optic nerves
much.
So everyone who's anyone is connected in the most personal sense
and can "hook in" to the 'net instantly, easily, seamlessly, and does so
as though it were second nature. Those who are truly successful have only
the eyeglasses to betray their hook-ups, while the less fortunate have
pickups on their throat and sticky speakers behind their ears ("commdots").
This connection is stilll quite expensive (from a personal financial
standpoint) I imagine it's about like having a computer today-lots of people
have them, but not everyone can afford them, and in general those who have
them have a specific use in mind. On the other hand, the corporate world
would provide them to all their execs.
Stylish Grav Vehicle: Be it a Harley reproduced grav skimmer, or a Porche
2911 Hovercar, The Yuppie of the future's grav vehicle is a sign of her or
his status in society. Most vehicles in my campaign used in an urban setting
are "skimmers", capable of flight and wheeled travel. For a long time one
character's most prized possesion was a Porche reproduction in Grav form
with retracting wheels (Modelled after the 944), Gull wing doors, and a
vastly overpowered thrust system (btw, I considered a Porche body an airframe
for velocity purposes-is there any accuracy to that?). fun fun fun.
Note that the individual's computer/display system integrates with
the on-board computer of similar tech vehicles she/he is driving to provide
all the display information through the display headset the person is wearing.
This also prevents untimely phone calls while driving in traffic from taking
over the display.
I don't buy central traffic control systems "taking over" grav vehicles
either. I think this would only happen in trans-continental or high-altitude
ballistic trips (where adjustments are minimal in any case). For local travel
the individual is expected to keep within established travel lanes both on the
graound and in the air.
Ok, I've blathered enough. Remember I'm talking about high tech, large pop
worlds with relatively free-type governments. The picture changes quite a
bit with oppressive gov'ts, with TL down around 11 or so, etc.
P.S. To my knowledge this is the first post to both the TML and the XTML. It
seemed appropriate-is it?