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"I believe in limited government, and the 20th century has been the century of government. The data is uniform. The government has failed at every single task it has set out to do, with the exception of waging war."
- Bart Kosko
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| Tight-Beam | ||
| A method of communication that uses a very narrowly-focused stream of energy. |
Very early use of this idea in science fiction.
| "Pardon, your majesty—we have just received a first-degree emergency torpedo from flagship Y427W of fleet 42. In readiness."
"Put it on, here in the council chamber," a deep voice snapped. "If he's broadcasting it, we're in for a spell of hunting," Seaton remarked. "Nope, he's putting it on a tight beam—that's fine, we can chase it up," and with a narrow detector beam he traced the invisible transmission beam into the council room. |
| Technovelgy from Skylark Three,
by E.E. 'Doc' Smith. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Here’s another use of this expression in 1941, in Masquerade by Clifford Simak:
Compare to the solar energy beam from Masquerade (1941) by Clifford Simak, the
ultra-communicator from Galactic Patrol (1937) by Doc Smith.
needlecast in Richard Morgan's 2003 novel Altered Carbon.
Power carried across millions of miles on Addison's tight-beam principle.
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Tech news articles related to works by E.E. 'Doc' Smith
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'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
