Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"If I had to get a new Ph.D. now, I'd get it in polymer engineering - the manipulation of matter."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Plastirobe | ||
| A dress that varies in opacity by distance. |
Ed Morris really isn't up to a night on the town after dealing with endless visual ads on the way home from work on Ganymede.
| She leaped to her feet. "Let's go out tonight and celebrate. Okay?" Her slim fingers fumbled at the zipper of her shorts. "I'll put on my new plastirobe, the one I've never had nerve enough to wear."
Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she hurried into the bedroom. ""You know the one I mean? When you're up close it's translucent but as you get farther off it becomes more and more sheer until -" "I know the one," Morris said wearily. "I've seen them advertised on my way home from work..." |
| From Sales Pitch,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Future Science Fiction Magazine in 1954 Additional resources -
|
For other science-fictional fashions, check out the biofabric from a 1970 J.G. Ballard story, and the scramble suit from PKD's A Scanner Darkly.
Consider the disappearing dress - an art project created by Helen Storey and a group of artisans.
(The Disappearing Dress [video file])
The garment is constructed of a water soluble polymer. When dissolved the fabric turns into a tiny amount of liquid gel which can be reconstituted into a solid once more or used to grow plants. The dress is a dramatic illustration of how the material behaves.
In a light rain, the disappearing dress would act kind of like a plastirobe - at first opaque, then increasingly transparent.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Sales Pitch
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to Sales Pitch
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Plastirobe-related
news articles:
- Life Dress Plays Game Of Life
- Invisible Dress: Your Fashion Future
- x.pose 3D Printed Corset Has Data Transparency
| Seiko Astron Always Knows Your Time Zone |
| The Ring Clock IS Heinlein's Finger Watch |
| 3D Printed Fashion - Plastirobes And Transdresses |
| ThreeForm 3D Scans And Digitally Simulates Customer Fashion |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'...a 2045 convertible with a Hennis-Carleton positronic motor and an Armat chassis.'
'You can hook a Thorsen tube into a control circuit... and the tube will "remember" what was done and can direct the operation...'
Nature is a master of fabricating structured materials consisting of living and non-living components.
'The tiny devices chirped their impulse codes at one another...'
Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to "help them out."
'Improving man by bringing him close to Nature, while they combine the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well...'
Um, how about that pension for the humans who serve as the models for robot behavior?
