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"Science fiction has gotten more accurate as we've gotten closer to the present, because science fiction stories have not only attracted, but also generated current scientists."
- Larry Niven
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| Aircab | ||
| A flying autonomous taxi cab. |
As far as I know, the first use of this word in science fiction.
| Dropping his aircab from the night traffic level and hovering over the place at dawn, Peyton could see nothing about it to justify the fears of his companion. |
| Technovelgy from The Barrier,
by Harl Vincent. Published by Amazing Stories in 1934 Additional resources -
|
H. Beam Piper also used this in Time Crime:
"Which landing stage, please?"
Vall leaned forward and punched at the buttons in front of him. Something in the cab's electronic brain gave a rapid series of clicks as it shifted from the general Paratime Building beam to the beam of the Paratime Police landing stage, then it said, "Thank you."
The building below seemed to rotate upward toward them as it settled down. Then the antigrav-field snapped off, the cab door popped open, and the cab said: "Good-by, now. Ride with me again, sometime."
Compare to the tin cabby from the 1957 novel Cities in Flight by James Blish and to the automatic automobile from David H. Keller's 1935 story The Living Machine.
The music that the cab had been playing died away. "Paratime Building, just below," it said, in a light feminine voice.
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| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
