 |
Message Cylinder
A small metal object containing some form of message media and a mechanism for either playing or extruding the medium; secured communication device. (Read the full article)
| "We have had such things in real life since World War II. The British SOE used them, as we did alson in the cold war, and likely still do. They look like metal cigarette cases and contain microfilm. If you drop it or force it open, a flashbulb goes off. See reference in Tom Clancy's "The Cardinal of the Kremlin."
Asimov also included a message "cylinder" concept in the first of his Foundation novels (other than the new prequel). But this was plastic, ovoid, containing a spool of self-corroding paper similiar to a ticker-tape. I do not recall the page, but the reference can be found during one of first mentions of the character Hobber Malow, on the occasion when he is informed that he must go to the planet called Askone.
In Dune, further investigation would have revealed to the person who submitted this article that message cylinders definitely contain thin paper in all cases, and have anti-tamper acid capsules. See discussion of seized, fake message cylinder appearing to implicate the Lady Jessica (vivat! vivat! vivat!), later discovered to have been planted by the enemy." (Julian 4/11/2006 4:09:53 PM ) |
Leave a comment:
Tediously, spammers have returned. So, send me your comments to bill at the site name (be sure to mention the page) and I'll post them. Thanks!
Current News Articles
Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
Heat Waver - The First Ever Combo Solar Collector And Wind Turbine
'...like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
Tesla 'Fleet Response Agents' Bolster FSD Autonomy
'You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life... in his hands.'
Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot
'My homeland is being threatened by the Replicators. Thus far all attempts to stop them have failed.'
Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art
'A robobus had just rolled up to the curb.'
Scary Grid Safety Robots
'The ultimate horror for our paranoid culture...'
Does AI Provide A Way Forward For Talk Therapy
'And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr. Smile.'
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
