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"SF is a controlled way to think and dream about the future."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Two-Wheeled Ground Car | ||
| A gyro-stabilized vehicle like an enclosed motorcycle. |
| "Thank you, Danny," Samms said, as appreciatively as though he did not know
exactly where his ground-car was.
He got in. The door jammed itself gently shut. The runabout--a Dillingham eleven-forty--shot smoothly forward upon its two fat, soft tires. Half-way to the exit archway he was doing forty; he hit the steeply-banked curve leading into the lofty "street" at ninety. Nor was there shock or strain. Motorcycle-wise, but automatically, the "Dilly" leaned against its gyroscopes at precisely the correct angle; the huge low-pressure tires clung to the resilient synthetic of the pavement as though integral with it. |
| From First Lensman,
by E.E. 'Doc' Smith. Published by Fantasy Press in 1950 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the smart bike from Bruce Sterling's 1998 novel Distraction and the two-wheeled car from The Roads Must Roll, a 1940 novella by Robert Heinlein.
Thanks to Winchell Chung (aka @Nyrath) for this item.
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'The world ... is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon.'
'He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna...'
'It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while.'
It's the polite thing to do, and has been the polite thing to do for about four generations.
