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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Provigil-C | ||
| A special drug that promotes wakefulness in troops. |
| "Michelle, order all the AIDs to administer Provigil-C."
The drug was a combination of Terran anti-narcolepsy drug and a Galactic stimulant. The Terran drug prevented sleep from forming. However it was believed that the stresses of combat were such that more than an anti-narcotic was necessary. When the powerful and persistent Galactic stimulant started coursing through their veins, the troops started to move. |
| Technovelgy from A Hymn Before Battle,
by John Ringo. Published by Baen Books in 2000 Additional resources -
|
Provigil is the name of a real drug (Modafinil) used to treat narcolepsy.
The idea of a pill or other means for doing without sleep recurs in science fiction. Robert Heinlein's 1941 story Methuselah's Children has a reference to a "sleep surrogate" that you could take in the morning after an inadequate night's sleep. Also, see the article for A-som, anti-somnolence drugs mentioned in Paul Di Filippo's 2006 story Shuteye for the Timebroker; this story examines what it would be like to eliminate sleep entirely.
Thanks to Connor Lawrence for writing in with the quote for this item.
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'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'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?'
'...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.'
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
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