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@FredKiesche@dice.campClifford D. Simak had a “life blanket” in one of his stories (see link). He reused the idea in my current read (“So Bright the Vision”) in which the main character mentions the concept was used by a obscure SF author, hundreds of years before, name long lost. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1453
“So Bright the Vision” also has some amusing takes on using AI for fiction, writing as a mass production industry, etc. https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?576332
I wonder if that was the inspiration for the Symbs in John Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline?
@nyrath @FredKiesche Nope: Varley's Symbs predate The Ophiuchi Hotline—they showed up in his earlier Eight Worlds stories ("Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance" won a Locus Award in 1976). Predate "Doorways in the Sand", and very different from the Heinlein "Puppet Masters" (although that's clearly where Futurama's Brain Slugs come from).
@FredKiesche @cstross @nyrath I always confuse Destination: Void with another novel that I can't remember the name of: a comatose human brain is used as the operating system of a starship, which goes well until the human personality finally regains consciousness, leaving the starship crew without a functioning operating system.
@60sRefugee @cstross @nyrath I don’t know that one, but it sure echoes on this Dean Ellis cover for Herbert’s original version of Destination Void.
Maybe a bit like the Zark in J. F. Bone's "Insidekick" ?
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@FredKiesche @nyrath Also probably the source of Rudy Rucker's Happy Cloaks from Software/Wetware. Fungus-infected flickercladding becomes an intelligent symbiote that fixes & protects you. Or just runs a whole body like clonemeat Wendy.