Word: high-tech
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...cyberpunk, a late-20th century term pieced together from CYBERNETICS (the science of communication and control theory) and PUNK (an antisocial rebel or hoodlum). Within this odd pairing lurks the essence of cyberpunk culture. It's a way of looking at the world that combines an infatuation with high-tech tools and a disdain for conventional ways of using them. Originally applied to a school of hard-boiled science-fiction writers and then to certain semi-tough computer hackers, the word cyberpunk now covers a broad range of music, art, psychedelics, smart drugs and cutting-edge technology. The cult...
...million unemployed Germans are understandably concerned because their country has become a powerful magnet for foreigners seeking asylum. The number of refugees streaming in -- and looking for work -- rose a record 71% last year, to 440,000. Now there's a proposed solution: a high-tech incarnation of Berlin's infamous Wall. Intended to control immigration from Poland and the former Czechoslovakia, the "electronic wall" (as critics now call it) will consist of mobile radar and infrared units similar to those used in other Western countries. Testing begins next month...
...that is 60% built with parts also used in other Honda models; previously the shared-component segment amounted to 10% to 15%. The carmakers are also considering a method already used by truck manufacturers: standardization of certain components, which allows parts companies to cut their prices. Zexel, a major high-tech partsmaker based in Tokyo, expects to get seven manufacturers to agree to a common fuel injector for their diesel vehicles. The risk of commonization is that if taken too far, it could disappoint consumers, who hardly need more disincentives to buying...
...CERTAINLY ISN'T ART -- MORE LIKE A BIG-SCREEN video game. The first ever interactive movie, I'm Your Man, which opened last week in New York, is a high-tech picture puzzle that allows an audience to pick its protagonist and plot the action. Choices come along every 90 seconds or so in this campy 20- minute caper, and viewers vote with a three-button pistol grip installed on their armrests. The on-screen tallies are instantaneous, thanks to laser-disc technology, and the majority rules. This first film (soon in seven more theaters), has 68 possible permutations...
...transforming the dying process, much as the natural-childbirth movement did to childbearing over the past generation. In a sense they are racing against the radicals. Once they can offer a more gentle and dignified alternative to either a life ground down by pain or a death in a high-tech hell, the demand for Dr. Kevorkian's service will disappear...