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"...a lot of people find adventure on the Internet. That's their idea of being interactive. My idea of being interactive is going on out and doing it on the street."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Coffin Rack | ||
| A hotel with very (very!) small rooms. |
Looking for an inexpensive place to stay? In the city in Japan? You might want to try a coffin hotel. Lots cheaper than a regular room - maybe because a coffin hotel is a room stripped down to the bare essentials - the parts you use the most.
| The New Rose Hotel is a coffin rack on the ragged fringes of Narita International. Plastic capsules a meter high and three long, stacked like surplus Godzilla teeth in a concrete lot off the main road to the airport. Each capsule has a television mounted flush with the ceiling. I spend whole days watching Japanese game shows and old movies. |
| From The Science Fiction Yearbook (ed. Jerry Pournelle),
by William Gibson. Published by Omni Publications in 1984 Additional resources -
|
Perfect for Gibson's future urban sprawl dramas. The name of the short story is New Rose Hotel. It was made into a movie in 1988.
And, just to clear things up, Gibson did not invent the idea of a coffin hotel. They are real hotels that date from at least the early 1970's. I also remember the original hotel in Walt Disney World in Orlando; each room was a fully constructed "shoebox" that was hoisted into place.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Science Fiction Yearbook (ed. Jerry Pournelle)
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to The Science Fiction Yearbook (ed. Jerry Pournelle)
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
| Real-Life Macau or Ghost In The Shell |
| Galini 3D Printed Sleeping Pod Tiny Houses |
| Seasteading Floating Cities |
| Aequoreas Floating Village 3D Printed From Ocean Junk |
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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.
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I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along.
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'... a sound tape to supply the noise'
'The spotter descends, and we think it searches the vicinity, looking for the victim's face...'
