Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Denmark Island Earth (Verdenskortet ala Ringworld)
(At home on Earth - in Hobro, Denmark
In Hobro, Denmark, you can circumnavigate the entire globe in under an hour. Or at least a scale model of it. At the Verdenskortet (translating literally as "world map" in Danish), visitors can visit a scaled map of the world, with a series of manmade islands built of dirt and rocks resting in a pond.Built between 1944 and 1969, the map was the handy work of Søren Paulson, a farmer living on family land with an adjacent lake. It's about 300 feet by 150 feet in size, and 10 inches on the map corresponds to a scale of about 69 miles.
Larry Niven had the same idea in one of his novels. In his award-winning 1970 novel Ringworld, Larry Niven creates for us an amazing artifact - a ribbon of matter that entirely surrounds a star. Spin it up for artificial gravity, put some tall edges on it to hold in some atmosphere, and you have an incredible amount of real estate. The Ringworld was created from all of the non-solar matter around its sun, including all of the planets. Since you could create upon the surface of the Ringworld any shape continent or sea, wouldn't you choose shapes that are familiar?
"Hold it. I want a closer look at those groups of islands!""Why, Louis? That we might stop for provisions?"
"No... Do you see how they tend to form clusters, with wide stretches of deep water between? Take that grouping there." Louis's forefinger circled images on the screen. "Now look up at that map."
"..And that grouping in what you called a bay, and that map behind you. The continents in the conic projections are a little distorted... See it now? Ten worlds, ten clusters of islands. They aren't one-to-one scale; but I'll bet that island is as big as Australia, and the original continent does not look any bigger than Eurasia on the globe."
...The first generation -- they had to throw away their own worlds, but they wanted to keep something of what they were losing. Three generations later it would be funny. It's always that way."
(Read more about the Ringworld artifact, or see more technovelgy from Ringworld.)
Via PopMech.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/19/2015)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")
Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners
Daytime version.
The Morphing Wheel And The Smartwheel
'If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it.' Neal Stephenson, 1992.
Transporting Antimatter
'...drawing plans for the magnetic tongs and bed plates and relays.'
I Wish This Plaudit Pin Was More Like A Wristpad
'Frank was cursing into his wristpad, switching between Arabic and English.' - Kim Stanley Robinson, 1992.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail
'That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part.'
Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.
Rogue AI Replicated Itself
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
When AI Takes Its First Breath
Any suggestions?
Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners
Daytime version.
The Morphing Wheel And The Smartwheel
'If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it.'
Transporting Antimatter
'...drawing plans for the magnetic tongs and bed plates and relays.'
Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus
'He wrote on it, using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger...'
I Wish This Plaudit Pin Was More Like A Wristpad
'Frank was cursing into his wristpad, switching between Arabic and English.'
World's Largest Teleoperated Arm
'...a pair so huge that Stevens could not conceive a use for it..'
Japan's AI Buddharoid Automonks
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
