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"I've got this beautiful panoramic three-dimensional painting of Mars based on Martian photos. It's 30 feet wide. You can pick out every pebble on the Martian landscape. And who'd have dreamed you could do that?"
- Arthur C. Clarke
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| Millipede Train | ||
| A train that is able to move without tracks or other supports. |
This is the only mention of this train in the story. The aspects of it that interested me was that it apparently did not need the largest investment - a prepared track. There has been some discussion of robots that suggests that the advanced robots of the future will not walk like people (upright biped) but may have lots of little legs to make it easier.
| A puff of air advanced out of the train tunnel. Patricia thought to peer over the edge of the platform to see what kind of mechanism the subway cars rode on. The floor of the channel was featureless, no rails or guides of any sort. Out of the tunnel hissed a giant aluminum millipede, its nose windowless and crossed by a radiance of green lines. |
| Technovelgy from Eon,
by Greg Bear. Published by Bluejay International in 1985 Additional resources -
|
When this train went over a chasm, it was held down to rails by magnetic induction - but you might as well when out of a tunnel.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
