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"...there's a great affinity between writing poetry and SF."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Gravity Whip | ||
| A roller coaster designe to provide riders with a 'zero G' experience. |
If you think that roller coasters are extreme now, just wait.
| Snakelike and faroff around the edge of the Park the Gravity Whip coiled, offering a total of thirty seconds of weightlessness via computer-designed parabolic arcs. |
| Technovelgy from Dream Park,
by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes). Published by Ace Books in 1981 Additional resources -
|
Here's a bit more for today's zero G roller coaster designers to think about:
"...We're going to rework the Whip for total Environment. Redesign the cars, add opticals, sound, texture. We've got a dozen scripts waiting for the special effects program. Think of an 'Alice in Wonderland' where the customer really falls down the rabbit hole, or a space trip where your gravity goes out at selected moments... We're working on ways to stretch that thirty seconds of free-fall time, psychologically."
Like extreme coasters? See this article on RoboCoaster G2 - Extreme Robot Roller Coaster.
Thanks to Erik Glenn for suggesting this item.
"Why redo the Whip? It's still pulling 'em in."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Dream Park
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
Tech news articles related to Dream Park
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
Gravity Whip-related
news articles:
- Zero Gravity Roller Coaster Coming
| 'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century |
| Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79 |
| Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off |
| Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
