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"My father was a master mechanic; I grew up with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other."
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RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels. Every skateboarder on Earth would have these - if only they really existed. I've never heard of an idea like this being considered. You might think of it as a variable radius wheel, or a really sophisticated system of stilts. But to Kouriers, this was professional equipment that got your messages through on time.
I want a car with wheels like these! When you think about it, wheels like this are very minimalist - which is a cyberpunk trait as well. The spoked wheel (for bicycles) was only invented in the last 150 years; now, we can do with out the round outer "wheel" part, and just use the spokes.
Here's another quote that gets the nature of smartwheels across:
Snow Crash is the novel that put the word "cyberpunk" on the map*; it's a great ride. (* Okay, I had just finished rereading the novel, and it's true that I could - fairly - be accused of an excess of enthusiasm, since the term had been around since being coined in a story published in 1983. Yes, yes I've read lots of the other stories by Gibson, Sterling, Shirley and others, all of whose works are represented elsewhere on the site.) And yes, the pizza delivery scene that starts the book is the most remarkable such scene in all of world literature.
Engineers and historians may recall the Pedrail Wheel, invented in 1903.
![]() ( Pedrail Wheel, invented in 1903 )
'The tread consists of a number of rubber shod feet which are connected by ball-and-socket joints to the ends of sliding spokes. Each spoke has attached to it a small roller which in its turn runs under a short pivoted rail controlled by a powerful set of springs. This arrangement permits the feet to accommodate themselves to obstacles even such as steps or stairs...' (Thanks to Stephen Thomas for pointing this out.) You might also be interested in a different sort of "smart wheels" - a real-world technology with potential uses in robotics:
CSOIS students, faculty, and staff at Utah State University have developed a key enabling technology concept called the 'smart wheel'. This is a self-contained wheel module with a steering motor, drive motor, and an innovative slip ring that allows data and power to pass from the chassis to the wheel without a wired connection. The slip ring allows infinite rotation in the steering degree of freedom. See USU center for self-organizing intelligent systems. Compare to the spherical tires from The Death's Head Meteor, by Neil R. Jones and the flex-wheels from Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. Comment/Join this discussion ( 5 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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