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"We each live in a somewhat unique world of our own psychological content."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Life Detector | ||
| A device that was capable of detecting living tissue within a set radius. |
This device was able to sense the presence of life directly, without using auxiliary signs (like carbon dioxide or heat emission).
| The antennae of the Life Detector atop the OP swept back and forth in a rhythmic halfcircle like so many frozen sticks brittle with rime ice...
One operator - drugged to shivering wakefulness - stood watch in the OP. The space around him was barely six feet in diameter, crammed with equipment, gridded screens glowing a pale green with spots that indicated living flesh: a covey of ptermigan, a possible Artic fox. Every grid point on the screens held an aiming code for mortar fire. |
| Technovelgy from Cease Fire,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Conde Nast in 1958 Additional resources -
|
See the entry for Life Detector Shield for more discussion.
This is an early use of the concept; it comes ten years before the "sensor scans" of Star Trek fame.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Cease Fire
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Cease Fire
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Life Detector-related
news articles:
- Life Detector Robot To Find Life On Distant Worlds
- Urey Life Detector
- LifeReader Senses The Enemy Through Walls
- Cougar20-H Robot Hears Your Breathing
- NASA FINDER To The Rescue In Nepal
- Is There Life In Outer Space? Will We Recognize It?
| Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI |
| Brainoware Reservoir Computation Of Biological Neural Networks |
| Forward CarePod The AI Doctor's Office |
| Octopus Suckers Inspire Transdermal Patches |
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'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
