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"[Science fiction is] anything that turns you and your social context, the social you, inside out."
- Gregory Benford
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| Millipede Train | ||
| A train that is able to move without tracks or other supports. |
This is the only mention of this train in the story. The aspects of it that interested me was that it apparently did not need the largest investment - a prepared track. There has been some discussion of robots that suggests that the advanced robots of the future will not walk like people (upright biped) but may have lots of little legs to make it easier.
| A puff of air advanced out of the train tunnel. Patricia thought to peer over the edge of the platform to see what kind of mechanism the subway cars rode on. The floor of the channel was featureless, no rails or guides of any sort. Out of the tunnel hissed a giant aluminum millipede, its nose windowless and crossed by a radiance of green lines. |
| Technovelgy from Eon,
by Greg Bear. Published by Bluejay International in 1985 Additional resources -
|
When this train went over a chasm, it was held down to rails by magnetic induction - but you might as well when out of a tunnel.
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
