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"I received a nice letter the other day from the Dalai Lama. He had read 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. It is about a computer at a Tibetan monastery."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| The Krang | ||
| An enormous musical instrument (or weapon). |
| "...Who would have suspected it? The Krang is both a weapon and a musical instrument."
"It tells us a lot about the Tar-Aiym... not to mention going a long way toward explaining their interest in two such seemingly divergent fields as war and art. I can't say that I care for their tastes in music, though..." "Apparently," continued the thranx... "the machine generates some form of vibration... I confess myself hesitant to label it 'sound waves.' Probably something partaking of those characteristics as well as those of wave forms we could not identify - although their effects were noted." |
| Technovelgy from The Tar-Aiym Krang,
by Alan Dean Foster. Published by Ballantine in 1972 Additional resources -
|
As to the appearance of the Krang:
From above the dull metal plating of the machine an uncountable profusion of chromatically colored tubes ran toward the distant roof. Azure, peach, shocking pink, ivory, Tyrolean purple... Some were the size of a child's ty, small enough to fit over [the] little finger. Others looked big enough to swallow the shuttle with ease...
"Looks like the ultimate product of a mad organ-builder's worst nightmares..."
And what did it sound like when used?
A thousand million jackboots drummed alien marches on the side of his head while a conspiracy of laughing electrons tried to pull his scalp off. He smelled burnt orange.
The "machine" itself towered a hundred meters above them and ran the length of the auditorium, melting into the curved corners... Much of the machine was closed off, but Flinx could see dials and switches catching the light from behind half-open plates...
The gigantic pipes of the machine pulsed with anvillike ringings, circlets of lambent electricity crawling up their sides like parasitic haloes. They crackled viciously, much as ripping plastic foil...
Thanks to Eric Nodacker for contributing this item.
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and Technology from The Tar-Aiym Krang
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Tech news articles related to works by Alan Dean Foster
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'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
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'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
