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"...there's a great affinity between writing poetry and SF."
- Dan Simmons
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| Glowglobe | ||
| Floating spherical light bulb with organic energy source. |
Lighting is important to any decorating scheme; the lighting used in science fiction also sheds light (pun intended) on the technology available to the people in the story. On Dune, there is always the contrast between primitive tribal psychology and technology more advanced than we now possess
| Paul came to his senses, feeling the sand needles sting his exposed cheeks. We are committed, he thought. He put an arm around the signalman's shoulder, said: "Leave the equipment! There's more in the tunnel." He felt himself being pulled away, Fedaykin pressed around him to protect him. They squeezed into the tunnel mouth, feeling its comparative silence, turned a corner into a small chamber with glowglobes overhead and another tunnel opening beyond. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
You can't really tell from this passage, but other uses make it clear that these globes glow without any apparent external power source (they don't seem to be plugged in anywhere).
Many thousands of years later, this device is still in use, though its forms have changed; see pole-tethered glowglobe.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Dune
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and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Dune
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Glowglobe-related
news articles:
- GlowRing: Light Without Power
- Lev, Theremin-Playing Robot
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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...'
