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"did I had an extremely expensive wife - she would see a new car that she liked and just buy it... under California law I was bound to buy her debts. I think I turned out 16 novels in five years."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Life Detector | ||
| A device that was capable of detecting living tissue within a set radius. |
This device was able to sense the presence of life directly, without using auxiliary signs (like carbon dioxide or heat emission).
| The antennae of the Life Detector atop the OP swept back and forth in a rhythmic halfcircle like so many frozen sticks brittle with rime ice...
One operator - drugged to shivering wakefulness - stood watch in the OP. The space around him was barely six feet in diameter, crammed with equipment, gridded screens glowing a pale green with spots that indicated living flesh: a covey of ptermigan, a possible Artic fox. Every grid point on the screens held an aiming code for mortar fire. |
| Technovelgy from Cease Fire,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Conde Nast in 1958 Additional resources -
|
See the entry for Life Detector Shield for more discussion.
This is an early use of the concept; it comes ten years before the "sensor scans" of Star Trek fame.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Cease Fire
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Cease Fire
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Life Detector-related
news articles:
- Life Detector Robot To Find Life On Distant Worlds
- Urey Life Detector
- LifeReader Senses The Enemy Through Walls
- Cougar20-H Robot Hears Your Breathing
- NASA FINDER To The Rescue In Nepal
- Is There Life In Outer Space? Will We Recognize It?
| 3D Printed Organs From Space |
| Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor |
| NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI) |
| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
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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...'
