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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Bubble Car | ||
| Self-steering, hovering, this is the car of the future. |
The novel, in fact, takes place far into the future. The protagonist Corbel has awakened to find the future very different from anything he expected.
| She gestured him ahead of her, toward a bubble-car like those he had found in One City. Where his feet fell big insects fled, whirring. The car seemed to rest on the very tips of the grass blades. It did not shift as Corbell climbed in. Mirelly-Lyra gestured to him to slide over... and climbed in beside him. She bent to the console, hesitated, then punched in numbers. "We go for your pressure suit," said the translator at her belt. The car moved smoothly away. Mirelly-Lyra half relaxed; she was not steering. Already, Corbell knew that he could not return by car. He didn't know the destination number of the house. Down the hill and into a narrow valley the car drove, accelerating. Now they were moving at hellish speed. Corbell gripped a padded bar on the dashboard and wished he dared close his eyes. She was studying him. "You did not use such cars?" "No." Inspiration made him say, "We didn't have such things on Dogpatch." |
| Technovelgy from A World Out of Time,
by Larry Niven. Published by Random House in 1976 Additional resources -
|
The bubble cars present a uniquely individualized answer to the problems of mass transit. No one needs directions; you only need to know the code number for the place you are going. The car (and the network that operates it) knows exactly where it is going and the best route to get there. You don't need to steer at all.
Compare to the automatic automobile from David H. Keller's 1935 story The Living Machine.
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More Ideas
and Technology from A World Out of Time
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and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to A World Out of Time
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
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- ULTra - driverless automatic taxi
- SkyTran's Sky Pod MagLev Taxis
- Google Autonomous Electric Car Prototype Unveiled
- WEpod Driverless Vehicle On The Netherlands Roads
- California Proposes Ban On Driverless Vehicles
| Nifty Folding Electric Bicycles! |
| Boring Company Drills Asimov's Single Vehicle Tunnels |
| Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said |
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
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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.'
