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"In my mind I have gone all over the universe, which may make it less important for me to make piddling little trips... I did enjoy seeing Stonehenge. It looked exactly the way I thought it would look."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Transo | ||
| Teleportation of objects and personnel, used as the basis for "Trading Post" stores across the planet. |
This is one of those great Simak stories that never go out of style. In the book, human travelers are able to bring back alien technologies from distant worlds. One of them is a workable teleportation system.
| The back door opened to his knock and they walked into the back room of the Trading Post. Up near the door that went into the front part of the store stood a massive box-like structure, and Blaine, although he'd never seen one, recognized it immediately as a transo -- the matter transference machine which made the vast network of Trading Posts stretched around the globe an economic possibility. Through that box could come, with a moment's notice, any of the merchandise for which any of the thousands of retail outlets might find itself in need. |
| Technovelgy from Time is the Simplest Thing,
by Clifford Simak. Published by Doubleday in 1961 Additional resources -
|
One of the interesting themes explored repeatedly in the book is the effect that advanced alien technologies have on Earth economic systems. In our current era of globalization, the U.S. is encountering the effects of great technologies developed in other parts of the world.
For example, Europeans demanded that cell phones work in all of the countries of the European Union. As a result, they learned to have rigorous standards; phone companies met those standards. And that's how Nokia, a Finnish company, came to be a major player in world cell phone technology.
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Tech news articles related to Time is the Simplest Thing
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Transo-related
news articles:
- Deterministic Quantum-State Teleportation Achieved With High Fidelity
| 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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'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...'
