Wireheads: SF trivia

[danaeris]

OK, I can't remember if this is what really happens.

In Ringworld, I thought that when we first met Louis Wu, he was a "wirehead" or something like that -- addicted to some kind of wire or headset or something that gives him pleasure. But he's also bored with it; hence why he is so easily recruited to go off and adventure.

I haven't read this in years and years, though. Possibly even a decade. So I could be totally confused.

I bring this up because it sounds remarkably similar to a concept that yaksman was just describing from a Spider Robinson novel.

Comments

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

The idea was used in The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton.
In Ringworld, as I recall, the alien in charge used a remote pleasure-giver to maintain his authority. Called the TASP, I think.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

That was to keep the Kzin in check, mostly, if I rememeber correctly. The Kzin didn't want to become addicted.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Spider did riff off the wirehead idea. He wrote a story about a guy rescuing some girl from suicide by wirehead, which he then parlayed into a pair of novellas, collected as Telempath. I think your recollection re: Wu is correct, but I'd have to find my copy of Ringworld to be sure.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

Telempath was Robinson's first novel, about a post-apocalyptic world, the apocalypse brought about by exponentially increasing the human ability to smell.


Robinson's wirehead characters first appeared in a story titled "God is an Iron" which later became one of the early chapters of his novel "Mindkiller" (The character Karen wires herself up, provides enough water that she'll starve to death rather than die of thirst, and flips the switch, suicide by ecstacy.) It might or might not have been a riff on Niven's "Death by Ecstacy", but Niven definitely used the concept first.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Fair catch. Yes, I was thinking of MindKiller when I typed Telempath

[http://users.livejournal.com/_morgane/]

You're right.The wirehead as a concept is introduced in Robinson's 'God is an Iron' I've done research into this IRL: Met wirehead animals etc.

[geekosaur]

The wirehead was from _The Ringworld Engineers_; he'd become addicted because of the tasp wielded on him in _Ringworld_.

In _Ringworld_ he was bored, it was his birthday, he was timezone-hopping to have as many birthday parties as possible, and finally got redirected by Nessus. Getting into the adventure took some fast talk on Nessus' part IIRC.

[wiseacre.livejournal.com]

For some reason I think Louis-as-wirehead is from the sequal, not the first Ringworld. Maybe I'll go and actually look it up.

[wiseacre.livejournal.com]

As stated in geekosaur's post, it is The Ringworld Engineers.
http://www.amazon.com/Ringworld-Engineers-Larry-Niven/dp/0345334302

[bluedaisy.livejournal.com]

Having just finished reading Ringworld for the first time, I can assure you that Louis Wu is not addicted to anything when he decides to go adventure. It's explained that he just goes off on solo spaceflight "sabbaticals" every N (where N is like 50, I think) years or so, and the book starts with Louis' (200th?) birthday party.

The pleasure thing is used on the Kzin, and is indeed called a TASP. It's later used on Louis, too, but he doesn't get addicted.

wirehead

[http://users.livejournal.com/_duncan/]

I must go back and reread the classics. The first to come to mind when you mentioned wireheads was Snowcrash.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

The concept of a wired pleasure center has been used in a number of places in a number of different SF novels.

I couldn't tell you the first.

[foms.livejournal.com]

I can't add much to this. I suspect that the above-mentioned Death by Ecstasy is one of the earliest uses in fiction. It may be the first.