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"The answer to the problem of information overload on the Net is reputations… engineer a system called a reputation server."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Quadraturin | ||
| Substance that creates more space when applied to walls, floors and ceilings. |
In his fanciful story, Krzhizhanowsky provides a fanciful answer to the problem faced by Soviet citizens like Sutulin, who have been assigned strict housing limits: eighty-six square feet per apartment.
| So then: we have discovered - this is a secret now - an agent for biggerizing rooms. Well, won't you try it?" The stranger's hand popped out of the briefcase and proffered Sutulin a narrow dark tube, not unlike a tube of paint, with a tightly screwed cap and a leaden seal. Sutulin fidgeted bewilderedly with the slippery tube and, though it was nearly dark in the room, made out on the label the clearly printed word: Quadraturin... On closer inspection it turned out that this zinc packet was tightly fitted - as is often done by the makers of patented agents - with a thin transparent paper whose ends were expertly glued together. Sutulin removed the paper sheath from the Quadraturin, unfurled the rolled-up text, which showed through the paper's transparent gloss, and read:
DIRECTIONS
|
| From Quadraturin,
by Sigizmund Krzhizhanowsky. Published by Not Known in 1925 Additional resources -
|
Sutilin carelessly spills the concentrated Quadraturin onto the floor of his room, which grows larger and larger.
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Tech news articles related to Quadraturin
Tech news articles related to works by Sigizmund Krzhizhanowsky
Quadraturin-related
news articles:
- Brine Wells May Swallow Towns
| MXenes - Atomic-Thin Metal Sheets Now Easier To Make |
| Do We Still Need Orbiting Factories? |
| MIT Self-Assembling Reprogrammable Materials |
| Tiny Mining - Extract Precious Industrial Minerals From Your Own Body |
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'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
