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"If we're going to be consistent and advocate freedom of speech we have to advocate freedom of encrypted speech too. The genie is out of the bottle, cryptologically."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Slaver Stasis Field | ||
| A force field that protects everything inside it by creating a space in which time is suspended. |
The Slaver Stasis field has a variety of applications in the novel. The most important is its use to protect large space craft from collisions or attack.
| The ship lurched despite the cabin gravity. Louis snatched at the back of a chair and caught it; Teela fell with incredible accuracy into her own crash couch; the puppeteer was folded into a ball as he struck a wall. All in an intense violet glare. The darkness lasted only an instant, to be replaced by glowing light the color of a UV tube.
It was coming from outside, from all around the hull... "We have been fired upon," said Speaker. "We are still being fired upon, probably by X-ray lasers. This ship is now in a state of war. Accordingly I take command..." Louis said, "The Slaver stasis field must have gone on too. No telling how long we were in stasis." |
| Technovelgy from Ringworld,
by Larry Niven. Published by Ballantine in 1970 Additional resources -
|
The stasis field creates a space in which time does not pass. Since time "stands still", no damage can be done to the material occupying the space protected by the field.
This is an interesting precursor to the idea used in The Peace War, by Vernor Vinge. A similar idea was used under the name nullentropy bin from Frank Herbert's 1984 novel Heretics of Dune.
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'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
