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"I realized there was a heavy-duty change coming in biology, and I could write a really compelling novel about catastrophic evolution, punctuated equilibrium."
- Greg Bear
 |
| Dropshaft | ||
| An elevator shaft with no elevator - the "lift" is from gravity or suppressed inertia. |
As far as I know, the first use of this term, although the idea had been sketched out earlier (see below).
| The Pyrotic let the dropshaft lower him, and he found the lifescoot some time later. |
| Technovelgy from Deeper Than the Darkness,
by Harlan Ellison. Published by Infinity Science Fiction in 1957 Additional resources -
|
See the entry for drop shaft from Galactic Patrol (1937) by Doc Smith. Smith has all the words, but doesn't create the phrase.
Compare to bounce tube from Robert Heinlein's 1956 juvenile Double Star.
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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...'
