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" I think that computers today allow us one last opportunity to provide something like a level playingfield in America."
- William Gibson
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| Sub-Etheric | ||
| Below the level at which ordinary light is propagated. |
As far as I know, this is the first use of this phrase in science fiction.
| Mere probability is all that is left. And my first actual invention was a geodesic tracer, designed for its analysis. It was a semi-mathematical instrument, essentially a refinement of the old harmonic analyzer. Tracing the possible world-lines of material particles through Time, it opened a window to futurity‥
Here is the chronoscope. The latest development of the instrument. Scansion depends upon a special curved field, through which a sub-etheric radiation is bent into the time-axis, projected forward, and reflected from electronic fields back to the instrument. A stereoscopic image is obtained within the crystal screen, through selective fluorescence to the beat frequencies of the interfering carrier waves projected at right angles from below. |
| Technovelgy from Legion of Time,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 Additional resources -
|
This expression was used by many authors, particularly in the sense of communication that was potentially faster than light (because it traveled "under" the luminiferous aether, which was a 19th century construct to explain the propagation of light.
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'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'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?'
