The Sword and Laser discussion

Having a computer that you could interact with in your head while useful could be incredibly annoying. I loved the amount of humor Scalzi used with the devices. Calling it Asshole seems appropriate.

If you had one what would you name yours?

Me. Probably F*cktard.

It would get so confusing, I already talk to myself nonstop. I'd probably end up calling it Master.

Like any other Marvel fan, I'd call it "Jarvis" of course.

I'd probably name it Felicia or Veronica and program it to have a female voice. The same reason I'm 100% hetero male yet 100% of the time in games like Skyrim play a female character. Geekgasm or something I suppose.

I like P.G. Wodehouse, so I think I would go with Jeeves.
I would activate it like this, "Uhm, Jeeves?"

I'd name mine Shivers for Joe Abercrombie's character. I think it would work well to imagine his psychological profile in my head while fighting in the CDF. Also, my cat is named Shivers.

I think it would freak me out, but it did seem incredibly useful. At least it wasn't as annoying as the Jane computer in Speaker for the Dead. For the name I'd have to go with "Jesus Christ!" As in, "Jesus Christ! What time am I supposed to go to the dentist?" Or, more like in the book, "Jesus Christ! I need more grenades!"

I noted in http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1... that I hated the name Asshole:

It really took me out of the story when Perry names his BrainPal™ “A**hole”. I get that it’s a mixture of grumpy-old-man mentality with a healthy dose of “new technology that can’t be all that great” skepticism, but I felt this was more of a childish and immature naming than anything “in character”. It only gets worse in the next chapter (p112), of course, when nearly everyone has named their interfaces something ridiculously cynical.

With that said, I'd love to have my own BrainPal™, and would probably name it Me.

I would freak out. It's also hard to think I would get used to it after a while. Although I have to admit I let out a good laugh when Jesse said "Yo, bitch"

How about Emeril Lagasse's "Self"?

I am going to have to agree with Erik and say "Jarvis" for me.

I'm leaning towards "R2". More so since I think I'd cut the audio feed.

I think I'd go with one from the book (Asshole/Bitch/Satan) at least at first.

After the novelty of that wore off, I might go with Mister or Buddy (Hey, Buddy?).

In fact, after the first few months, it doesn't really matter what you've called it, it responds to the thought pattern of your emotional/mental state of thinking about using your BrainPal. Using the name after that is just a short-hand device for the author to identify internal actions.

I think it makes total sense for the characters to name their BrainPals something like, "Asshole", etc. I'd likely go with something similar for at least the first bit and then switch over to Jeeves.

I'd hate having something like that in my head. My thoughts are my own and it would feel incredibly invasive to me so I'd name it something like sh*thead or something alone the lines that the Old Farts did.

@Dara/14: Maybe that's why I was so pulled out of the story with those names: I would *love* a BrainPal™ right now (hell, I'd love to be a tester for Google Glasses), so the "immature" and "insult" of naming it as such just yanked me right out of wanderlust and into sputtery sighs.

Morbus wrote: "@Dara/14: Maybe that's why I was so pulled out of the story with those names: I would *love* a BrainPal™ right now (hell, I'd love to be a tester for Google Glasses), so the "immature" and "insult"..."

It did strike me as immature at first as well, but then I thought about how older people just generally hate new technology and can have difficulty figuring it out. My mother is only 58 and she has no clue how to set her DVR or change the input on the television to watch a DVD. My mother hates her laptop so much that if she didn't have to use it for work, I'm pretty sure she'd have set fire to it already. So I don't think it's entirely out of character for a group of elderly individuals to curse out their BrainPals.

@Eric/16: Yeah, I considered that in my original comment ("I get that it’s a mixture of grumpy-old-man mentality with a healthy dose of “new technology that can’t be all that great” skepticism"), but it still wasn't enough to put me at ease. It seems, though, I'm in the minority.

Erik wrote: "Like any other Marvel fan, I'd call it "Jarvis" of course."

You took mine! I had that thought when I read the book last year.

If I had to pick another, I would go with Hal, or GuiltySpark.

For the record I would love to have something like this in my head. With a memory add-on, I would feel less absent minded.

As an additional thought, the only real difference between something like this and having Google and Facebook accounts would be the interface. They already catalog your choices, demographics and friends information, and use algorithms to anticipate your needs. Your going to need it to do what you need it to do if it's in your head or on your desk.

I would name it Ann, short for Aneurism, which is what I believe it would eventually give me.

Hershel wrote: "Having a computer that you could interact with in your head while useful could be incredibly annoying. I loved the amount of humor Scalzi used with the devices. Calling it Asshole seems appropriate..."

I always tell my husband I'm holding out for a neural interface (a la Barclay in Star Trek). I'd love one. Can't imagine what I'd name it, but I'll side with the people who found the names used in the novel kind of immature & implausible.

My first thought of a name for the BrainPal was Karen, as in Plankton's wife on Spongebob. When I thought about it later, HAL came to mind.

I think having a BrainPal would be awesome, too, as long as I could turn it off when I wanted some alone time. Then again, "Blank is Beautiful."

Aethelberga wrote: "I always tell my husband I'm holding out for a neural interface (a la Barclay in Star Trek). I'd love one. Can't imagine what I'd name it, but I'll side with the people who found the names used in ..."

A lot of it was humor I believe. However not every finds the same things funny.

I like that one character names her BrainPal "Satan" it was humorous and I think that I'd name mine something along those lines. Maybe "Lucifer." I also like the insulting names, so perhaps "Jerkface," which is one of my favorite insults.

I would call mine something silly too, like "penis", like I sometimes do on videogames' character naming screens (juvenile, I know)

But as I understand it, after a while it reads directly your thoughts ? Is there need for a name then, doesn't it become part of you ?

I'd call it "Precious" and have it to refer to me by the same name. I'm sure I would develop Gollum-like attributes if I had a computer talking to me all the time.

I can't wait for my BrainPal! Don't yet know what I would call it.

I wouldn't name it Asshole, though I enjoyed the humor of that...at first. As a long-time Blake's 7 fan, the first thing I thought of was "Slave." I'm pretty sure I wouldn't call it that, either, but it is the very first name that popped into my head. Novels, TV and (most notably for me) role-playing games are filled with brain mods that have independent AI. So I'd be much more likely to call it "Ralf the Wise and Powerful," "Gloria," "Friend Computer," or even just "Computer."

Emmanuel wrote: "...But as I understand it, after a while it reads directly your thoughts ? Is there need for a name then, doesn't it become part of you ?"

This was really the only other thing that bothered me about the book than the things I've already mentioned elsewhere. There was no need for John to continue mentioning Asshole after he explicitly says that after a while he ceased having to talk to it at all (page 143 in my mass-market paperback edition). For me, his continued reference to Asshole took me out of the narrative a tiny bit, each and every time. I think Scalzi would have done better to change from "Asshole did X" to "I did X," as I'm pretty sure every CDF would think of it after a while, not just the Special Forces guys. By naming Asshole as something implicitly separate from John, it felt like Scalzi was pointing out for any readers who might be slow on the uptake: "Hey, remember that this guy has actually got a computer! In his head! Right now! Whoa! Cool, right?" (sad to say, in this imagined subtext, Scalzi sounds distressingly like Keanu Reeves. It could be any of his films, but say it's "Johnny Mnemonic")

I've been eager for this kind of technology for a long time. As well, my smartphone voice interface is a rung on the ladder to the BrainPal interface, although my phone is Australopithecus and the BrainPal is Isaac Newton. So I don't think I'd react with fear, annoyance, or anger to its presence. I'd probably name it after one of my favourite figures from history, "Leo", "Newton", "Ben"--something like that.

I don't know what I would call it, other than I probably would not leap first to a swear word.

I think I'd have a similar reaction and name mine something vulgar to start with, then probably change it to Hal.

I'd call it Mycroft after the computer in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Mycroft itself being a reference to Sherlock Holmes' even smarter older brother. :)

My first impulse is to call mine Storm. Not the X-Man, but because of brainstorm.

But I'd probably settle on Encyclopedia Braniackia or something stupidly hoity-toity sounding because those things amuse me.

I'd call mine Harvey. More for the Farscape reference than the original reference.

Valerie wrote: "I'd call it "Precious" and have it to refer to me by the same name. I'm sure I would develop Gollum-like attributes if I had a computer talking to me all the time."

SECONDED!

Either HAL or Marvin

I think I get why they named their BrainPals something insulting at first. You're just getting used to not being 75 any more, you get to watch your own (old) body die, and now, without a whole lot of warning, this THING is talking inside your head?! I'd be unnerved a little too, no matter how cool I think it is right now, happily in my original bod.

As for changing the name, while Scalzi mentions it's possible, I don't think it's ever a good idea for an author to re-name a character, even a minor one, in mid story. Only confusion can result.

My wife gets mad at me for calling everything Steve. So, if I were 75 and she was dead, I'd call it Steve. I love you Steve, you're my favorite, Steve. Show me the Michael Keaton classic SF film Multiplicity while I ride in this troop transport, Steve. Get my Steve reference, Steve.

Josh wrote: "I'd call mine Harvey. More for the Farscape reference than the original reference."

Same here. Prefect reference to the creepy feeling of a BrainPal without the curse word.

haha, I think calling your BrainPal(tm) 'Self' or 'Me' is just inviting neurosis.

lol, on a similar line, I was thinking I would call my BrainPal(tm) 'You', then it would be just You and me in my brain. :) Plus 'you' can be affectionate or insulting depending on how you say it, which perfectly illustrates my ambivalence to the idea of having something foreign inside my own head. I mean, sure, parts of it sound like a lot of fun and I'm not saying I wouldn't love it in theory but what if it goes wrong - and anyway, there's enough brain-crazy in my head as it is!

I'd love to have one. I'd call it Google.

I'd call mine Hudson, after the butler in Upstairs Downstairs.

Jim wrote: "My wife gets mad at me for calling everything Steve. So, if I were 75 and she was dead, I'd call it Steve. I love you Steve, you're my favorite, Steve. Show me the Michael Keaton classic SF film Mu..."

There is something wrong with you.

And I like it.

I think I'd call mine "Brain". After awhile it would feel like I'm talking to my brain instead of something implanted in it.

Also, to look at my schedule I could say "What are we doing tonight, Brain?"

For some reason I thought of naming it after some kind of dessert.

"Cheesecake, are they serving cheesecake today in the commissary?"

I thought the rude names in the book were pretty funny, but my first inclination was to name my own Ghostwheel (from the latter half of the Amber Chronicles). I agree with Josh, though, that Harvey would be perfect.

Sherwin wrote: "For some reason I thought of naming it after some kind of dessert.

"Cheesecake, are they serving cheesecake today in the commissary?""

I would have enjoyed this in the book. I was let down that all but one of the senior citizens went with cusses. Not only highly implausible, but makes everyone seem generic, knee-jerk and unimaginative. At least "Cheesecake" would be cute.

If I got one today, it'd be "Grimlock."

How about 'big pink bunny?'

Or, and most importantly, said with a British accent, and yelled, 'The great big green dragon with huge fangs what lives in me noggin'?'