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Yaks? Aww, thems just hairy cows. Up here you need to put a polar bear over your feet if you want to keep from freezing your yaks off.

Thanks, Ann.

Below is a representative sample. FYI, Rosary is a robot maid, but is considered a "she" rather than an "it" by Joseph. Moses is the palace AI system. This is all from Joseph's POV.

As you can see that's a lot of "Joseph's mother", sometimes 2-3 per paragraph where there are three females about, so using she or her doesn't always work. The scene moves so fast, there is no real way for Joseph to transition from his mother to regent and back. I tried to use the words "Joseph's mother" and regent to serve as the transitions themselves, but I can't get it consistent.

Here's another:

The reference to Joseph's mother as "she" in the third sentence is probably technically correct, but in my opinion causes confusion between Alicia and Joseph's mother.

The alternative is:

Too repetitive?

Thanks, Charles. Very helpful.

I'm treating Imperial Fleet like US Navy, hence caps.
I'm rethinking Imperial Perimiter. It's a no-fly zone. I may drop the caps for consistency with palace, family, and emblem.
Colosseum was a typo and refers to the one in Rome, hence caps.
I settled on imperials instead of Imperials, since it's really just short for imperial forces.

I think I'm set (until next time). :-)

Thanks.
Dirk

Why would they? The developed world is in for a serious reckoning when the IoT takes off. One successful, simultaneous attack is all it takes, and we know that few government/business entities are secure enough to prevent a massive attack.

I'm hoping the aforementioned virus that blinds wiseeyes users will be sufficient to render them unusable. I'll look for an excuse to mention it. Perhaps even an event called the Great Blinding for a massive simultaneous attack in the past.

The Irish Ballad by Tom Lehrer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_jjRNMOopA

I like the name (it goes with wisething or wisewatch for the wrist, and wisepad). I'm just worried it's capabilities are going to blow key parts of my story apart. In 2000 years, those things should be really smart, including full integration with Galaxinet, auto-identification of everything in the field of view, display enhancements such as zoom (maybe even night vision), threat detection and targeting, messaging, virtual keyboards, etc. Add a bluetooth headset and you're always on all the time. You become almost a cyborg.

You'll recall I banished genetic engineering because of Dr. Ess (so that humans won't have genetically engineered themselves to perfection by 4017). I also placed a limit on AI intelligence by including the possibility that they become sentient and cause havoc, even turning on their masters. This is true for all of the better droids (usually IQ-C or IQ-D) and ship's AIs (IQ-B). I'm saving IQ-A for something really complex, like large-scale battle coordination. The higher the IQ, the greater the risk.

I need a reason why advanced wiseeyes don't exist or are generally not used.

nairadeceba Romney

I almost forgot the most important piece of tech in any royal toolkit: the ubiquitous datapad. We'll call them wisepads.

Here's an example scenario regarding wiseeyes and wisepads. Apollo and his chief of staff, General Acrisius, are walking to the study and an aide comes up and hands Apollo a wisepad with a text message from Mama. Apollo reads it, then hands it to Acrisius to read, too. If I try to use wiseeyes, the aide (wearing wiseeyes) would walk up, make some gesture to transfer the message to Apollo's wiseeyes, who subsequently transfers it to Acrisius. But! What does the aide do if he just woke up Apollo and he isn't wearing them? (I assume their removable so they can be easily replaced and/or confiscated for security reasons.) Should the aid carry a wisepad wherever he goes in case the emperor is not online? (I ignore the case where Apollo is always on with the palace AI (mindmeld), since advanced AIs have a habit of coming alive and causing havoc at the worst times.) But, a simple rule in Apollo's inbox to notify his wiseeyes when there's a message from Mama is all it takes to put the aide out of work. And Apollo could use his wiseeyes virtual buttons (I don't like hand gestures, too tiring) to forward the message to Acrisius. But! Watch out for door jams and droids, because you're going to bump into one if you're reading while walking. But! The wiseeyes could potentially be configured to warn him when he's about to crash into something or drop through a manhole. What about wiseears and wisemouths to carry on fully immersive conversations with anyone anywhere? And if everyone is sporting these Acme goodies, then there is no more need for 2D or 3D displays.

My head is spinning....

Opinions, please. I'm writing about the 41st century, and the technology consists of 2D and 3D displays, and "wisethings" (smartwatches that Tim Cook could only dream of). However, I don't yet use "wiseeyes" (contacts lenses). I had originally considered using wiseeyes for bringing up information about whatever was appropriate for the scene, but I think it will become a distraction to explain in each scene what the wiseeyes are displaying. And don't even get me started with hand gestures to interact with the wiseeyes. I was considering having the eyeseyes able to accept input by the wearer staring at "buttons" on the wiseeyes display. I also worry about writing myself into a corner, where the wiseeyes make it impossible to fail.

Thoughts?