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"I think a lot of kids whose mental growth outruns their maturity gravitate to science fiction."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Time Scoop | ||
| Retrieved objects from other points in time. |
| There, beyond the steel door, was the time scoop. He recognized it at once. The mirror. The long metal rods, ending in claws. Like Berkowski's theoretical model - only this was real.
 (Time Scoop from 'Paycheck' by Philip K. Dick) |
| Technovelgy from Paycheck,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Imagination in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Here's a description of what happens when it is used:
From the dark circle a claw appeared, a metal claw, joined to a shimmering rod. The claw dropped, swinging in a wide arc. The claw swept the paper from Kelly's fingers. It hesitated for a second. Then it drew itself up again, disappearing with the paper, into the circle of black. Then, silently, the claw and the rod and the circle blanked out. There was nothing. Nothing at all.
Perhaps the earliest use of this general idea can be found in a 1939 story by Edmond Hamilton published in Startling Stories:
In the space above them something moved. A dark space formed, A circle. The space stirred. Kelly and Rethrick stared up, frozen.
('The Space Visitors' by Edmond Hamilton)
Compare to the time dredge from Time Dredge (1942) by Robert Arthur.
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'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
