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"By the time I can take people out to where Hubble is looking, they won't be human anymore, by a long way."
- Larry Niven
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| Dropshaft | ||
| An elevator shaft with no elevator - the "lift" is from gravity or suppressed inertia. |
As far as I know, the first use of this term, although the idea had been sketched out earlier (see below).
| The Pyrotic let the dropshaft lower him, and he found the lifescoot some time later. |
| Technovelgy from Deeper Than the Darkness,
by Harlan Ellison. Published by Infinity Science Fiction in 1957 Additional resources -
|
See the entry for drop shaft from Galactic Patrol (1937) by Doc Smith. Smith has all the words, but doesn't create the phrase.
Compare to bounce tube from Robert Heinlein's 1956 juvenile Double Star.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Deeper Than the Darkness
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and Technology by Harlan Ellison
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Tech news articles related to works by Harlan Ellison
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| Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail? |
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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.'
