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"As opposed to illiteracy, where you can't read, aliteracy means that you can but you just can't be bothered. They say aliteracy is on the rise these days."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Planet Buster | ||
| A bomb so powerful it could destroy a planet. |
This is the earliest reference I know about.
| "One of our largest space bombers was over the planet. The commander warned the Aldebarans that unless they agreed to surrender the diamonds at once, he would drop a planet buster - that’s a Class-A oxygen bomb. The Aldebaran’s return message, expressed in the crudest possible language, told the commander what he could do with the bomb.” |
| Technovelgy from Assignment to Aldebaran,
by Kendall Foster Crossen. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1953 Additional resources -
|
The reference to a "oxygen bomb" is a satiric reference to the hydrogen bomb.
I first encountered this term in Frank Herbert's quirky but excellent 1972 novel The Godmakers:
Marion Zimmer Bradley picked it up about five years after Crossen, in The Planet Savers (1958):
We'll take up a tight orbit. Out beyond us will be five transports full of I-A marines plus a Class IX Monitor with one planet-buster. You're calling the shots, God help you! First, we have to know if they've taken the Delphinus , and if so, where it is. Next, we want to know how warlike these goons are. Can we deal with them? Are they too bloodthirsty? What's their potential?
A simple heat-gun, to the Darkovan ethical code, is as reprehensible as a super-cobalt planetbuster.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Assignment to Aldebaran
More Ideas
and Technology by Kendall Foster Crossen
Tech news articles related to Assignment to Aldebaran
Tech news articles related to works by Kendall Foster Crossen
Planet Buster-related
news articles:
- Planet Buster Dead Star Vaporizes Mini-Planet
| Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets |
| Can A Swarm Of Deadly Drones Take Out An Aircraft Carrier? |
| Has Turkey Been Stealing Rain From Iran? |
| We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces |
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'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
This is nothing new for science fiction fans!
'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.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
