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
"It's hard to tell stories about critters that are not human. John W. Campbell tried it, in "Twilight," and everybody says it's a wonderful story, and nobody ever reads it twice."
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Ring-Table | ||
| A device that creates a 'group mind', a single mind, from the many gathered around it. |
| The great circular compartment was as empty of life as the one which we had just left, the twilight dusk in it dispelled somewhat by the soft-glowing disks in its walls. The great ring-table in it had in the seats around it no Neptunians of the Council now, but at that table's center stood still the great metal globe whose strange mechanism made of the thirty minds of the Council members a single mind, in perception and action. Knowing even as we did that it was but a lifeless mechanism now, without the Council's members connected to it, it was yet with some awe that we stared toward that great mechanism, to whose voice we had listened so short a time before.
 (Ring-Table from 'The Universe Wreckers" by Edmond Hamilton) |
| Technovelgy from The Universe Wreckers,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Here is the ring-table in action:
"Good God!" I muttered at that astounding spectacle. "That globe of metal, Marlin — it hears him, answers him! The thing must be alive!"
"Not alive. Hunt," Marlin said swiftly, his own eyes startled, though. "Those conncctions that run from the thirty to the globe — they center in that globe's mechanism in some way the minds, the intelligence, of all the thirty!"
Swift light Hashed upon me at Marlin's words, and as I gazed astonished toward the thirty Neptunians and the central globe I knew that Marlin's explanation was the only logical one. Tnese thirty Neptunians, it was apparent, were the supreme rulers, the highest council, of all the Neptunian race. And since it was necessary that they use all of their differing minds as one in directing ±he destinies of their strange race, they had in some way devised a mechanism for that purpose, which synthesized the intelligence, the minds, of the thirty into one single mind by means of that strange mechanism. So that it was literally as one mind that the thirty perceived and thought, when gathered here together, the central globe speaking out the synthesized thoughts and questions of all the thirty!
Other examples of group minds (a version of the hive mind idea) can be found in the group ego from Methuselah's Children (1941) by Robert Heinlein and in Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. See the entry for hive mind from Face of the Deep (1942) by Edmond Hamilton, probably the first use of the phrase.
AS we stood there the Neptunian leader before us spoke in sharp snaps, as though explaining; our presence, hut not to the thirty around the table; it spoke to the great central globe of metal! In amazement we watched him, and then we saw that the globe was turning upon its pedestal, turning toward us a small circle of clear glass set in its opposite aide, that surveyed us for the moment exactly like a single calm eye. Then the globe turned again, the opening in its side a^ai" facing us, and then from that opening came a stacatto answer to our leader, a swift question, apparently, in the snapping speech-sounds of the Neptunians! The globe was hearing our captor's report, was questioning him concerning that report, while the thirty around the table uttered no sound, and turned not toward us.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Universe Wreckers
More Ideas
and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to The Universe Wreckers
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
| Space Explorers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine |
| Who Knows What Might Be Found When Visiting A Metal Asteroid? |
| StoryFile To Help William Shatner Become Landru |
| DNA Controls Swarms Of Molecular Robots |
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
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
