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"It's hard to tell stories about critters that are not human. John W. Campbell tried it, in "Twilight," and everybody says it's a wonderful story, and nobody ever reads it twice."
- Jerry Pournelle
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| Millipede Train | ||
| A train that is able to move without tracks or other supports. |
This is the only mention of this train in the story. The aspects of it that interested me was that it apparently did not need the largest investment - a prepared track. There has been some discussion of robots that suggests that the advanced robots of the future will not walk like people (upright biped) but may have lots of little legs to make it easier.
| A puff of air advanced out of the train tunnel. Patricia thought to peer over the edge of the platform to see what kind of mechanism the subway cars rode on. The floor of the channel was featureless, no rails or guides of any sort. Out of the tunnel hissed a giant aluminum millipede, its nose windowless and crossed by a radiance of green lines. |
| Technovelgy from Eon,
by Greg Bear. Published by Bluejay International in 1985 Additional resources -
|
When this train went over a chasm, it was held down to rails by magnetic induction - but you might as well when out of a tunnel.
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'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.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
