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"This category [science fiction] excludes rocket ships that make U-turns, serpent men of Neptune that lust after human maidens, and stories by authors who flunked their Boy Scout merit badge tests in descriptive astronomy."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Vehicle Seeds | ||
| A matrix of materials and instructions that allow vehicles to grow themselves when placed in an environment of plentiful materials. |
It does't make sense to carry all of the materials for vehicles and weapons all the way to Titan, when you can find all the materials you could ever want right there, quick to hand.
| These organic compounds will provide plenty of the raw materials used by our weapon and vehicle seeds to double and even triple their present mass...
"These are your rudimentary seed packages," Bueller says. "Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures, like excavators or centipedes. Others will take more time and grow out to full size by themselves, mostly the vehicles supporting big weapons - zap guns, ionics, penetrators. Once placed in their cradles beside the station, all the seeds will dip from the station storage tanks, and they'll also start pulling in gases and liquids from the local atmosphere... ...visuals of seeds sprouting, growing like carnival balloons plumping out, becoming monstrous, making crew and warrior spaces... |
| Technovelgy from Killing Titan,
by Greg Bear. Published by Orbit in 2015 Additional resources -
|
Compare to biological circuit fabrication from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1984).
"Seeds are hungry," she says... "Don't get between them and raw material reserves. Don't mess with anything growing. Half-finished product has been known to absorb whatever it touches. Stay the hell away from developing products."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Killing Titan
More Ideas
and Technology by Greg Bear
Tech news articles related to Killing Titan
Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear
Vehicle Seeds-related
news articles:
- Chemputer To Grow Bespoke Drones Through Chemistry
- Grow Structures Upon Planetfall - Myco-Architecture
- IceBot Antarctic (Planetary?) Robotic Explorers Made Of Ice
- Is It Possible To GROW Planes And Vehicles?
| Varda Space Industries Orbital Factories |
| Boring Company Bricks Predicted In 1929 |
| Is It Possible To GROW Planes And Vehicles? |
| Scaly-Foot Snail Works With Iron |
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'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'
'It's area, and its consequent light-gathering capacity, was many times greater than any rigid mirror...'
'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.
'...a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football.'
'... 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.'
