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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Infinite Improbability Drive | ||
| Generates a field in which anything, no mater how improbable, can exist. |
This mind-bendingly clever idea should force you to your knees, right this moment, where you will genuflect and hope that your awe finds its way to Douglas Adams, who unfortunately is no longer with us. I'm just going to give you a taste of it.
| "Please do not be alarmed," it said, "by anything you see or hear around you…We are now cruising at a level of two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand to one against and falling, and we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway. Thank you…" Ford was wildly excited. "Arthur!" he said, "this is fantastic! We've been picked up by a ship powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive!" |
| Technovelgy from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
by Douglas Adams. Published by Harmony Books in 1979 Additional resources -
|
There is a lot more material on this piece of technovelgy; however, you should certainly go to the source to read it - on the odd chance that you haven't actually read this book.
However improbable, there is a precursor to this idea; see the Probability Time Wave Tube from Elimination, a 1936 short story by John W. Campbell, Jr.
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| Beautiful Visualization of Dawn Spacecraft |
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| Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand |
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'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
