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"We [science fiction writers] always wanted to believe in "private sector" space -- hucksters make better characters than a government does."
- Larry Niven
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| Surface Car | ||
| A specialized vehicle for traveling on a planetary surface. |
Compare this term to the more futuristic "aircar" (which first appeared in The New York Times in 1871!).
| At the landing field itself, under the blazing carbon dioxide lamps, a small man drove up in a surface car, showed an authorization to the guard, passed into the burglar-proof enclosure. |
| Technovelgy from Satellite Five,
by Arthur K. Barnes. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1938 Additional resources -
|
Philip K. Dick uses this, and similar ideas, in Progeny (1954):
It was a good feeling. He had felt it before, during years of business dealings in the “Colonies”, the frontier, the fringe of Terran civilization where the streets were still lit by electric lights and doors opened by hand.
Yet another of the terms like like groundcar, post-crime and static house.
ED DOYLE hurried. He caught a surface car, waved fifty credits in the robot driver’s face, mopped his florid face with a red pocket-handkerchief, unfastened his collar, perspired and licked his lips and swallowed piteously all the way to the hospital...
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and Technology from Satellite Five
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Tech news articles related to Satellite Five
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur K. Barnes
| Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon |
| Engineer Creates Crazy Motorized Track Hospital Bed |
| Xiaomi Self-Driving Self-Balancing Scooter |
| AV-STEP To Permit Sale Of Vehicles Without Steering Wheels Or Pedals |
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'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
