05-18-2021, 01:58 PM
(05-16-2021, 06:19 PM)stevebowers Wrote: Ah, yes. I quite like the Pliocene Saga by May. It has some qualities in common with the Commonwealth Sagas of Peter Hamilton; lots of characters, lots of bizarre storylines. The flecks were a good idea, but I was always worried that the user concerned would lose them, since they were so small.
The Saga of the Exiles was one of the main inspirations for my own novel series, particularly the psionic power system and the "magic vs technology" theme. Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy was another influence, although I haven't read his Commonwealth novels yet.
Todays flash drives are as small as they need to be. Any smaller and people will lose them.
On the other hand, I have something called a "waferprint" in my first novel. It is a thin tab, a few millimetres wide, that can stick to any place where it has been hidden. It can only stick to the finger of a trusted human with recognized DNA. It can store massive amounts of data, including complex encryption keys and viruses. Some are secretly used by 30th century colonists to keep AIs in line.
An early draft had a character using something resembling today's flash drives, but then I realized that such an obvious detail was going to date quickly.