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"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Cloud Sculpting | ||
| Using gliders and chemical showers to shape clouds artistically. |
A retired pilot finds his way to Vermillion Sands, and meets a kite-maker. Add a beautiful but mysterious woman to the mix, and you've got a great story.
| The tree gliders, brilliant painted toys, revolved like lazing birds above Coral D, waiting for the first clouds to pass overhead. Van Eyck moved away to take a cloud. He sailed around its white pillow, spraying the sides with iodide crystals and cutting away the flock-like tissue. The streaming shards fell toward us like crumbling ice-drifts. As the drops of condensing spray fell on my face I could see Van Eyck shaping an immense horse's head. He sailed up and down the long forehead and chiseled out the eyes and ears.
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| Technovelgy from The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D,
by J.G. Ballard. Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1967 Additional resources -
|
I don't know if anyone has ever tried cloud sculpting. Cloud seeding (the attempt to produce or alter precipitation and weather by sprinkling materials into clouds) was done just after World War II.
Thanks to John for letting me know about the great cover art for this story; I read it in the 'Vermillion Sands' collection.
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'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
