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"...being predictive, being right about the future, is not the point of any given story or novel. The point is about exploring as wide a range of possibilities as possible."
- Peter Watts
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| Laser Rifle | ||
| A laser weapon shaped like a rifle, carried by one man, fired at the shoulder. |
As far as I know, the earliest use of the term "laser rifle".
| “You got the time, A1 ?”
“Ten till.” Soot-barrelled [sic] laser rifles protruding through ink-dipped fronds. . . . “Think anyone’ll come?” “Naw.” |
| Technovelgy from Nine Starships Waiting,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Fantastic in 1963 Additional resources -
|
Another very early reference to laser rifles in Gree's Hellcats (1966) by CC MacApp:
Compare to laserifle from Door to Anywhere (1966) by Poul Anderson.
Perhaps the earliest "energy weapons" were the Electric rifle from Tom Swift and the underwater gun that fired leyden ball from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Soft popping sounds began, punctuated with angry roars and shrieks of the animals, and occasionally with the splat of a laser rifle. The hunters thrashed by in the brush on both sides of him, and emerged into the small glade at the edge of which he’d chosen to hide.
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More Ideas
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Tech news articles related to Nine Starships Waiting
Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny
| Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait |
| Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade |
| Moscow Attacked By Hundreds Of Drones |
| China's Handheld Electromagnetic Gun |
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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...'
