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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders."
- Larry Niven
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| Aerostat Monitor | ||
| A small flying platform, capable of maneuvering in three dimensions; can hover in place and communicate with others like it. |
I've seen a device very similar to this demonstrated on TechTV, but I can't find any other reference to it. It was about a foot square, with a fan in the middle, and looked like a flying bathroom ceiling fan.
| ...then Bud made himself scarce, because the monitors - almond-sized aerostats with eyes, ears, and radios - had probably picked up the sound of the explosion and begun converging on the attack. He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna that caught the light like a hairline crack in the atmosphere. Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays. Nanotech materials were stronger. Computers were infinitesimal. Power supplies were much more potent...a device built with several thrusters pointed along different axes could remain in one position or indeed navigate through space. |
| From The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
Aerostat is really a generic word for craft that get their "lift" from the buoyancy of the surrounding air, rather than by the use of screws or turbines. At present, aerostats are in use as radar platforms; they are usually dirigibles and are not small.
In the novel, the author does point out that flying or hovering devices are much easier to make in an era when nanotechnology makes very light, very strong materials and machines possible.
Take a look at copseyes, from Cloak of Anarchy, a story by Larry Niven, written about twenty years earlier.
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Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
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| SHEPHERD-MIL, A Birdlike Soaring UAV |
| AXON Flex And Stross' Cop Specs |
| India Opts For Nationwide Iris Scanning |
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