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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Magnetically Floating Furniture | ||
| Furniture that is suspended at the proper height using magnetic forces. |
Short legs, long legs - people differ. How can you make sure that furniture is at the right height?
| The office was spookily furnished, since none of the furniture had legs. Everything was suspended magnetically at the proper height. The tables and the desk and the bar and the couches were floating slabs. The chairs were tilted, floating bowls. And most eerie of all, pencils and pads were scattered at random through the air, ready to be snatched by anyone who had an idea worth writing down. |
| Technovelgy from The Sirens of Titan,
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Published by Dell in 1959 Additional resources -
|
In the novel, one of the characters opines that this kind of furniture should "see like hotcakes." Not so.
Thanks to Mike Billa for submitting this item.
"Sitting on an American Levitation couch is harder than standing up in a birchbark canoe," said Fern dryly.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Sirens of Titan
More Ideas
and Technology by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tech news articles related to The Sirens of Titan
Tech news articles related to works by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Magnetically Floating Furniture-related
news articles:
- Levitating Bed Vonnegut's Future Now
- Hoverit Lounger Suspended Vonnegut Dream
- Hovering Levi-Table
| 'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks |
| Musk Proposes Sites For Martian Cities |
| Who First Thought Of A Tin Foil Hat? |
| Robot Baristas Learn Their Trade Without Paying Royalties |
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
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'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
