[stylist] barb's sci-fi thinking

[James Canaday M.A. N6YR]

Dear Barb and friends,
talking with you about telling oneself a story to fall asleep set me 
to thinking, a very dangerous thing.  you were talking about star 
trek.  some of the computer facilities in the original series, I 
remembered too.

what if this were invented: a device, maybe call it "the author's own 
hand" and it writes as you think.  you tell yourself the story, you 
include the imagery, the dialogue, and as you thinkit, it is exactly 
recorded by this device.  the device might have a few parts: a cap 
you put on your head; a box or computer cpu type unit that receives 
and translates the E.E.G. signals, translating them into the story as 
you think it.  then of course the system would have a printer, or 
braille embosser and a monitor for the visually impaired.

imagine someone has that, using it, gets quite used to it.

trouble is, it just records everything as the author's mind goes.

I thought of several potential plot twists: perhaps author forgets he 
or she is connected, does a few things, then moves to plotting a 
crime.  plotting that crime is entirely recorded just as if it were a story.

or, if the cap is wireless, Barb you like romance, and she forgets to 
take it off, and her husband comes home from a long trip and well ... 
um, they're awfully glad to see each other.

or, maybe the author forgets the cap is on, and in his or her day job 
is an analyst for the CIA.  and the mind just returns to top secret 
material, processes it.  but the author doesn't realize its been recorded.

I also could imagine in a sci-fi way that the cpu/box  programming 
might have a problem and start feeding back to the author.  so, the 
author's actual  life might start to resemble a story creation.

like I said, that comment from Barb  started me thinking.  what if 
I'd been wearing the cap?  oh gee, you'd have several pages to wade 
through, probably get bored and delete the message after twenty or 
thirty lines!
lol
jc
Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS