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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Gravity Train | ||
| An underground railway system that utilizes gravity for acceleration. |
This same idea is a major plot 'device' in the 2012 version of the Total Recall movie.
| They joined the line for the gravity train to Archimedes. The four of them boarded, the car was sealed, and Lilo's weight dropped away as the car fell down the inclined tunnel for almost four hundred kilometers. Somewhere under the Appenines the tunnel begain to slope up again, gradually slowing their speed to a crawl as the car nosed into the elevator which took them up to inhabited levels. |
| Technovelgy from The Ophiuchi Hotline,
by John Varley. Published by Quantum Science Fiction in 1977 Additional resources -
|
This idea was also used in Hugo Gernsback's 1911 novel Ralph 124c 41 + - see the entry for Sub-Atlantic Tube.
And what is the best shape or curve for this tunnel to follow? See the discussion in the article for gravity-assisted subway from Larry Niven's 1976 story A World Out of Time.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Ophiuchi Hotline
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and Technology by John Varley
Tech news articles related to The Ophiuchi Hotline
Tech news articles related to works by John Varley
| 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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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
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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...'
