 |
City Fathers
A set of computer systems which run every mechanical system in a city. (Read the full article)
| "Another interesting aspect of the city fathers: they are mechanically separated. There is one scene where the human characters are watching city fathers trundle about. Apparently, they only make contact to repair and communicate. The repair part makes certain sense, but to a person living in our connected age of internet and cloud computing, it seems ludicrous. If Cities in Flight were written today, the "city fathers" might be primarily software, running on a substrate of connectivity." (Grapeshot 3/12/2010 1:40:53 PM ) |
| "This might seem be less ludicrous than it seems. Look at the Wikipedia entry "sneakernet". No matter how connected the world seems to be, there are reasons that certain computer systems are not connected to others all of the time. One reason is security. I've never read the stories in question, so I don't know if security is an issues with them. The other reason is bandwidth. In the Wikipedia entry it mentioned that sneakernets are used when datasets are just too large to send over the internet in a reasonable amount of time." (Jarrod 1/24/2011 12:12:30 PM ) |
Leave a comment:
Tediously, spammers have returned. Please send your comments to @technovelgy and I'll post them. Thanks!
Current News Articles
Prairie Madness - And Space Sickness
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
Can Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Control The Weather?
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
SETI Suggests Prospecting The Solar System Without Landing
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
Wolfram Alpha Mathematica Predicted by Science Fiction in 1948!
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
Cislunar Space And The Space Lanes of Golden Age Science Fiction
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
NASA Moonbase Update
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
Neuralink Will Allow Humans To Communicate With ... Animals?
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
Special Lights For Driverless Cars!
'That light is actually the Anamorphic Equalizer...'
'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
Harrison Bergeron, Illustrated And Practiced
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
Starfall Manufacturing Drugs In Space
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
The Solar Oberth Slingshot
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
