Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I've been very obsessive about writing science fiction for far too many years. Anyone with an ounce of sense would have given up years ago."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Vibratium Wall Time Machine | ||
| An element that is unstable in time makes time travel possible and enables the Grandfather Paradox. |
One of the first references in science fiction to the "Grandfather Paradox", the idea that if a person went back in time and killed their own grandfather, they they would cease to exist. And so how would that person, who never existed, go back in time?
| Resting on a movable platform was a large square box, tall enough and wide enough to accommodate several men, as well as a cluster of shiny machinery, tubes, numerous gadgets and controls. What was peculiar about the box was the material of which it was made. A transparent, metalliclike substance, harder and less clear than glass, and shimmering in a sort of ecstatic dance as though its component atoms were afflicted with a stuttering St. Vitus.
 (Vibration Wall Time Machine from 'Ancestral Voices' by Nat Schachner) “Curious element, vibratium. Without its strange property of reversing itself or speeding up in time, the machine could never have been made.” The time machine cleared magically a moment, then clouded into milky opaqueness. The sharp outlines blurred and faded until there was only a gray mist ; then nothingness. The machine had started on its tremendous journey back into time! The vibratium walls shimmered into translucency; the atoms were approaching normal speeds. A tiny jar, and vision was established. The machine had come to a halt. |
| Technovelgy from Ancestral Voices,
by Nat Schachner. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1933 Additional resources -
|
The scientist's assistant tries to warn him:
“But it’s dangerous business, meddling with the past. What’s done is done. ‘The moving finger writes, and, having writ,
moves on.’’ You know the rest.
"We try to introduce an anachronistic element into the past, and the consequences may be incalculable."
The scientist kills his own remote ancestor and dies on the return trip in the machine.
Compare to the time machine from The Time Machine (1895) by HG Wells, the Dutch clock from The Clock That Went Backward (1881) by Edward Page Mitchell, the Anachronopete from El Anachronopete (1887) by Enrique Gaspar, precogs from The Minority Report (1956) by Philip K. Dick and the chronoscope from Legion of Time (1938) by Jack Williamson.
Fifty thousand men, women and children vanished that fatal day; fifty thousand human beings of every race and clime ; in savage Africa, in far-off Australia, in teeming China, in blue-eyed northern Europe, in dark-haired southern Europe, in the vast stretches of America, the melting pot of all races.
(Vibration Wall Time Machine Cover from 'Ancestral Voices' by Nat Schachner)
“This,” he repeated. “Look at it; it’s a Hun of Attila’s time. Read Gibbon’s description. Note something further. It’s a caricature, I grant you, but a painfully accurate caricature of Emmet Pennypacker the eminent scientist. This Hun was Pennypacker’s direct progenitor. Pennypacker killed his own father, so to speak, and therefore never existed. Pennypacker, gentlemen, was a myth!”
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Ancestral Voices
More Ideas
and Technology by Nat Schachner
Tech news articles related to Ancestral Voices
Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner
| Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm |
| Secret Kill Switch Found In Yutong Buses |
| The Desert Ship Sailed In Imagination |
| The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
'There were cubic miles of it, and it glistened like a silvery Christmas tree...'
'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...'
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
