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"The idea I want to push next is that the United States should make Siberia a Protectorate. Pay the Russians off – a hundred, two hundred billion dollars – and simply run Siberia in an ecologically responsible way."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Miniaturization | ||
| Making a physical object smaller in size. |
This text excerpt is from the novelization of the Film by Richard Fleischer, story by Jerome Bixby and Otto Klement, screenplay by Harry Kleiner.
| The phrase came clearly over the communication system, as Carter watched the Proteus shrink. It did so slowly at first, so that one could only tell it was happening by the change in the way it overlapped the hexagonal structures that made up the floor. Those that were partially revealed beyond the edge of the ship's structure crept outward, and eventually tiles that had earlier been completely hidden began to show. All around the Proteus, the hexagonals emerged, and the rate of miniaturization accelerated until the ship was shrinking like a patch of ice on a warm surface. Carter had watched miniaturization a hundred times, but never with quite the effect upon himself that he was experiencing now. It was as though the ship was hurling down a long, infinitely long hole; falling in absolute silence and growing smaller and smaller as the distance increased to miles, to tens of miles, to hundreds... The ship was a white beetle now, resting upon the central hexagon immediately under the miniaturizer; resting upon the one red hexagon in the world of white ones--the Zero Module. The Proteus was still falling, still shrinking, and Carter, with an effort, raised his hand. The glow of the miniaturizer faded to a dull red and miniaturization stopped. |
| Technovelgy from Fantastic Voyage (Novel),
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Bantam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
"Miniaturization" has been used in these novels: Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904), Richard Matheson's novelization of the film The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)and Richard Matheson's novelization of The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
Thanks to Connor Lawrence for contributing this item.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Fantastic Voyage (Novel)
More Ideas
and Technology by Isaac Asimov
Tech news articles related to Fantastic Voyage (Novel)
Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov
Miniaturization-related
news articles:
- In Vivo Micromotors Powered By Stomach Acid
- Implosion Fabrication Shrinks 3D Objects To Nanoscale
- Who Needs Asimov's 'Proteus' When You Can Have Pangolins?
| 3D Printing A 12-Meter Boat Hull |
| China Still Working On Rescue Robot That Eats People |
| Can One Robot Do Many Tasks? |
| Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm |
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
