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"[Science fiction is ] That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."
- Isaac Asimov

Tiny Nuclear Generator  
  A complete nuclear-based generator of power no bigger than a walnut.  

What happens when a user of superior technology encounters the less sophisticated? Trader Hober Mallow shows his personal force-shield to a tech-man from further out in the provinces.

"Where's the power?"

Mallow's finger fell upon the largest knob, dull in its leaden case.

The tech-man looked up, and his face was congested with blood. "Sir, I am a tech-man, senior grade. I have twenty years behind me as supervisor and I studied under the great Bler at the University of Trantor. If you have the infernal charlatanry to tell me that a small container the size of a - of a walnut, blast it, holds a nuclear generator, I'll have you before the Protector in three seconds."

Technovelgy from Foundation and Empire, by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Doubleday in 1952
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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Foundation and Empire
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Foundation and Empire
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Tiny Nuclear Generator-related news articles:
  - Liquid Semiconductor Nuclear Battery Big As A Penny

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Science Fiction in the News

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'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.'

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'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'

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't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'

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'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'

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'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'

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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'

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'Did you never see a moving house before?'

Will An AI Found A New Religion?
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