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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Selectacol | ||
| A device that automates the interior design process, providing a choice of color schemes for a roomful of furniture. |
Another great sixties kind-of-name. But an interesting concept; it's hard to see how it could be implemented, unless you used basically white or neutral colors and then changed the light color.
If you long for a selectacol, but are unwilling to wait for automatic decorating, find tips at The Sheffield School of Interior Design.
| Orne glanced around at the Bullone guest room: low-key furnishings with an old-fashioned selectacol for change of color scheme. A polawindow looked out onto an oval swimming pool. The glass had been muted to dark blue. This imparted a moonlit appearance to the view outside. |
| Technovelgy from The Godmakers,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Berkley Medallion in 1972 Additional resources -
|
In the novel, Lewis Orne is a person with exceptional, undiscovered abilities. One of the key themes explored in the book is the idea of free will - and whether or not people should be allowed to make choices.
The notion of being able to instantly transform your home into any of a set of interior design schemes also reveals the nature of the people who live in the house. They are also capable of transforming themselves over time to incorporate various political "colors" and schemes.
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| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
| With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need |
| Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast |
| LiquidView Ersatz Windows, ala Philip K. Dick |
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'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
