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"The SF approach: an awareness that things could have been different, that this is one of many possible worlds, that if you came to this world from some other planet, this would be a science fiction world."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Commuter Cooling Unit | ||
| A portable air conditioner for commuters. |
Richard Hnatt lives in a future Earth that is too hot. It is so hot that anyone who is forced to go out of doors is required to wear their own cooling unit for their own personal safety and well-being.
| Looking out the window he saw with aversion that already it had become too hot for human
endurance; the footer runnels were abruptly empty as everyone ducked for cover. The time was
eight-thirty and he now had to leave; rising, he went to the hall closet to get his pith helmet
and his mandatory cooling-unit; by law one had to be strapped to every commuter's back until
nightfall... He opened the door and stepped out into the hall, feeling the cool wind of the portable unit as it chugged from behind him... Shortly, he was aboard a thermosealed interbuilding commute car, on his way to downtown New York City... |
| Technovelgy from The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1965 Additional resources -
|
This book was written in 1964; time enough for Dick to see astronauts carrying their own
cooling units when climbing into rockets. It is a considerable leap to see how they might be
used in global warming.
The notion of global warming dates from the late 1800's; scientists vary in their estimates about how much our
weather patterns and global temperature vary due to our impact on the environment, or long-term changes that are normal for the Earth.
Compare to the heat suit from Sand Doom (1955) by Murray Leinster.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Commuter Cooling Unit-related
news articles:
- Air Warrior Microclimatic Cooling Garments Tested By Army
- Wristify, Your Personal Cooling and Heating Device
- Blaux Your Personal Commuter Cooling Unit
- Sony Pocket Air Conditioner Is Phil Dick's Idea!
| Sleep Pods At Daxing International Airport |
| Amazon Blimp Parent Drone Concept |
| Tortoise Mobile Smart Stores |
| Sony Pocket Air Conditioner Is Phil Dick's Idea! |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
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'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
