We have many names for many devices that don’t yet exist from the hypothetical future. Force fields, tractor beams, etc. And shows like Star Trek give us many more, like matter replicators, tricorders, etc.
What is the name of that device that you put over your head, and that transfers knowledge instantly to your brain?
I have to confess, the only show I know I saw it on for sure was Star Trek. But does it have a name yet? Ever since I was a kid, I always thought it was a neat idea–no more homework! But I guess I now realize it is unlikely it will be developed any time soon. Still I am curious what its name is.
The device is a common crutch in SF (Asimov even used it in “Pebble in the Sky”), allowing the author to get the characters and audience up to speed without lecturing or waiting six months until the character learns the language. However, it does not seem to have a single name – each author chooses his own. “Learning machine” is about as good as any, but the concept is pretty much discarded except in bad SF.
I remember in Forbidden Planet, Dr. Morbius used an ancient device he called a “Krell Educator” to give himself a “Brain Boost”. Increased his intelligence and allowed him to learn about the vanished alien race.
Greg Bear in his book Eon educated his characters via the Thistledown Library Didactic programs…
many other authors have used artificial teaching aids in their books,
although the ‘Education Machine’ in Forbidden Planet is about the first and most detailed example in films.
Oh yes- Superman was apparently educated by the escape craft that brought him to earth, if you believe the movie.
Attempting such a process in real life would be very complicated, and care would be needed to avoid radically altering the personality of the pupil…
nevertheless rapid hi-tech education processes such as omniuploads, concept mapping and tachydidaxy are imagined to be possible in the future (particularly in the OA universe)
though not without problems of their own.
Don’t forget in the movie Matrix they downloaded whatever info or skills the heroes needed rather quickly. I suppose though, that the knowledge or skills were only accessible while actually in the matrix.
In Niven’s old short story “The Fourth Profession”, the Monks just called them pills (they were supposed to work using memory RNA).
There were pills for teleportation, starship captain training, and martial arts (specifically, one to teach you to disarm a sentient worm…if you happened to be an unarmed sentient worm). There was also a smimming lesson for intelligent fish. Then, of course, there was the titular “fourth profession”, but I won’t spoil the story.
Asimov may have used it as a crutch in that novel (his first), but it was an integral part of the plot in his short story “Profession”. Which is one of his better short stories, IMO.
Joe 90 used one to gain the expert knowledge he used in each episode. He sat in a big rotating spherical cage thing. That’s about all I remember, not seen it for donkeys years.
