'Distress' — Greg Egan

In his 1995 novel set in 2055, the great sci-fi writer described the standard accessory of the mid-21st century: the notepad. * Features: • Voice controlled, it provides information the same way — by voice — along with a hi-res 3D color screen to illustrate things as needed. • Built into the notepad are Sisyphus, a knowledge mining program; Witness, which lets an individual's eyes and ears channel…