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"I think a lot of kids whose mental growth outruns their maturity gravitate to science fiction."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Talking Speedometer | ||
| A gauge that tells you its value verbally |
This is an early use of the idea of a gauge that does not need you to look at it to get a "reading."
| He pressed the accelerator under his finger, and as he passed the 150-k.p.h. mark the speedometer's mechanical whisper cut in- "One sixty- One sixty-eight- One eighty-" |
| From Biddiver,
by Theodore Sturgeon. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Sturgeon couldn't resist adding another example:
"Four hundred twelve k.p.h.-"
"Altitude twenty-three thousand fifty-"
He went quite peacefully to sleep then, ignoring the new whispering voice that joined that of the speedometer:
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'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
