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"...in fifty years, do you believe that people will be recognizably human?"
- Greg Bear
 |
| Concentrated Light | ||
| Beam of powerfully concentrated light pressure. |
Interesting foreshadowing of the ethical quandary of scientists in WWII is shown in this excerpt from a discussion between scientists.
| "I am a physicist, dealing with light and electromagnetic effects. What happens? My practical application of light pressure is now being used to scythe airplanes out of the stratosphere, to annihilate squadrons of men ten miles away... Brains that should have been employed to make the world a better and more wonderful place to live in, have devoted all their talents to annihilation..." |
| Technovelgy from The Shining One,
by Nat Schachner. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1937 Additional resources -
|
Here's a description of the weapon in use, after the attack begins:
Lasers are almost ready as a military device; see this article on laser gunships.
...concentrated light stabbed blinding fingers through the murk, blasted men and planes into crumbling dust.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Shining One
More Ideas
and Technology by Nat Schachner
Tech news articles related to The Shining One
Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner
| Man Builds 200 Foot Basement Firing Range |
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| Iron Drone Raider Counter-UAV Operations |
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'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
