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"The only real way to maintain privacy is to be uninteresting. It may be that privacy is a passing fad."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Skycycle | ||
| A flying Harley; motorcycle of the skies. |
If you are flying over the desert on a distant planet looking for Grogs in the terrain below, you couldn't ask for a more convenient vehicle than a skycycle.
| We flew on skycycles over a red desert, under the soft red sun of Down... I hadn't been flying a skycycle long. I'm a flatlander. I had spent most of my life in the cities of Earth, where any flying vehicle is illegal unless fully automated.
...I was beginning to feel more comfortable with the [skycycle] under me, this platform with a saddle and an over-sized lift motor and an air pump and a forcefield generator to stop the wind... I dug in my saddlebags, hoping to find a flask. |
| Technovelgy from Handicap,
by Larry Niven. Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967 Additional resources -
|
Niven fans will probably also think of the flycycle from his 1970 novel Ringworld.
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and Technology from Handicap
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Tech news articles related to Handicap
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| The 'Last Mile' In China Crowded With Delivery Robots |
| Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago |
| Waymo And Tesla 'Autonomous Cabs' Are Piloted By Remote Drivers |
| Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode |
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'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
