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
"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Music Sphere | ||
| A beautiful white sphere full of your music. |
After their conquest of space and the physical sciences, Man wanted to try a recreation of their race, with some limits. A controlled experiment. They made better than they knew.
| I wanted to find one of those spheres!
Sunrise on a bubble of snow. Low clouds mottled in pink and black. Around its gleaming whiteness, trees of green flushed with warm yellows and golds. It swelled high over my head, melting into the sky. I loved it. I was human enough for that. I went inside. It was simple. The door slid open at my touch. There were no guards, no attendants, no ticket-takers. There was only a soft, hushed hallway, and then a cool circular room, fresh and clean as pebbles in the silver depths of a spring.
 (Music spheres from 'Controlled Experiment' by Chad Oliver) I sat down in a chair and closed my eyes. The music started. Can’t you hear it, if you tty? It was like all the music of all the worlds, and yet it was achingly, wondrously new. It lifted me buoyantly, utterly outside myself. It whispered and sighed to me, gently, reverently. It was my music. Softly, softly, remember the quiet nights and the stars? Feel the flowers and the winds? Remember the friends you have been happy with, the friends who are gone, the friends of long, long ago? Touch the warm air of summer and the sunsplashed waters of lakes of memories? |
| Technovelgy from Controlled Experiment,
by Chad Oliver. Published by Orbit in 1954 Additional resources -
|
The final result:
They took out my tapes then and played our music, they listened, and then they all knew. Music saved our world, and more than that. It saved our self-respect.
The change in the Great Ship was astonishing, "rhe tension drained away as though it had never been, and the Men relaxed...
Two years later, I was back at the pickup ship, and it carried me up to the Great Ship where the Men were waiting. Mote than ever, I hated to be slowed down, but they had to adjust me back to ship time...
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Controlled Experiment
More Ideas
and Technology by Chad Oliver
Tech news articles related to Controlled Experiment
Tech news articles related to works by Chad Oliver
| Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones |
| Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts |
| Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million |
| California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone |
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
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
