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"Science fiction and science have always danced around each other. Science fiction is the subconscious of science."
- Greg Bear
 |
| Suction Mail Tube | ||
| An evacuated tube system carrying mail to residences. |
| She had opened the suction mail tube and there was the metal foil advertisement: ROME AND THE BORGIAS! THE WRIGHT BROTHERS AT KITTY HAWK! Travel in Time, Inc., can costume you, put you in a crowd during the assassination of Lincoln or Caesar! We guarantee to teach you any language you need to move freely in any civilization, in any year, without friction. Latin, Greek, ancient American colloquial. Take your vacation in Time as well as Place! |
| Technovelgy from The Illustrated Man,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
The original pneumatic capsules were created in the 1830's and used primarily for quickly sending telegrams from telegraph offices to nearby business buildings.
However, Bradbury is proposing (apparently) to have similar networks connecting all of our houses, which would be a fun idea. However, given my experience with tube networks in hospitals (where they are used to transport small specimens and paperwork), they need constant fiddling and repair work, and an entire city full of tube networks might be more of a hassle than a benefit.
Compare to the vacutubes and the bounce tubes from Robert Heinlein's Double Star (1956); Heinlein was another fan of the pneumatic tube system idea.
This comes from his short story The Fox and the Forest, which is a part of The Illustrated Man story collection.
Thanks to Connor Lawrence for submitting this item.
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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.'
