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"My feeling is that the chance of our surviving into the twenty-first century as working civilization is less than fifty percent but greater than zero."
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How is it possible for people encased in individual spacesuits to converse with each other? The ingenious Mr. Edison provides the solution.
This delightfully retro solution is based on the recent (from the point of view of the writer) introduction of telephone central exchanges, in which operators could connect two distant telephones with switchboards.
The first telephone switchboard was put into use in New Haven, Connecticut in 1878. Built from carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire, it could handle two simultaneous conversations.
Plug boards manned by operators characterized later telephone exchanges. Subscriber lines terminated in bantam jacks lined up in banks; when a distant caller picked up their phone, a light near the jack came on, the operator inquired as to the number needed, and then plugged a connecting wire into the subscriber's line to complete the call.
Compare to the suit-phone from The Sargasso of Space (1931) by Edmond Hamilton, the audiphone from Blood of the Moon (1936) by Ray Cummings and the suit-radio from The Long Way (1944) by George O. Smith.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
Splendid View Of Eclipse From Orbit Visualized And Repurposed By Arthur C. Clarke
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
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