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"The world is really so surreal these days that it's necessary for us to blunt it somehow in order to stay sane. The artist functions to short-circuit the buffering mechanism, so that people can occasionally perceive the weirdness of things as they are."
- William Gibson
 |
| Centrifuge Room | ||
| A small room on a planetoid that is spun to create artificial gravity. |
| The mess hall was one of the areas that was centrifuged, spinning slowly in a hollow in the rock. There was a larger wheel that was used as a gymnasium for running and weight lifting, and a third which held bunk rooms for those who did not like sleeping in free-fall. |
| From The Ophiuchi Hotline,
by John Varley. Published by Quantum Science Fiction in 1977 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the artificial gravity from Brigands of the Moon (1930 - likely the first reference) by Ray Cummings, the artificial gravity system from Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon and the city of space from The Prince of Space (1931) by Jack Williamson. You might also check out Artificial Gravity-Assisted Childbirth from Robert Heinlein's 1973 opus Time Enough for Love.
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Tech news articles related to The Ophiuchi Hotline
Tech news articles related to works by John Varley
| JWST Finds New World Of Turbulent Silicate Clouds |
| Spectroscopic Analysis Of DART Impact Debris Cloud (SF Prediction) |
| M-Dwarf Stars May Not Have Habitable Planets |
| Too Soon To Doom Lunar Farside Observatories |
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With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!
'... who let their handbag computers carry all the conversation.'
'Thus it came about that the search for a planetiferous sun near a white dwarf star was not unduly prolonged...'
'He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides.'
