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"But the problem with reincarnation is that it's hard to imagine what the storage medium for past lives would be. Not to mention the input-output device. I hesitate to rule it out completely, but I'd need pretty definite proof."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Jiffi-scuttler | ||
| A device providing near instantaneous travel between two points. |
Henry Ellis had a way to avoid the commute that was (even in 1954, when this story was written) becoming intolerable.
| In the back yard stood a big circular hoop that gleamed brightly in the mid-morning sun. Ellis turned some controls at the base. The hoop changed from silver to shimmering red.
"Here I go!" Ellis shouted. He stepped briskly into the hoop. The hoop fluttered about him. There was a faint pop. The glow died. "Good Heavens!" Mrs. Lawrence gasped. "He's gone!" Henry Ellis was in a sort of tunnel. All around hima gray, formless tube stretched out in both directions, a sort of hazy sewerpipe. Framed in the opening behind him, he could see the faint outline of his house... And in front of him... New York City. |
| From Prominent Author,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by If in 1954 Additional resources -
|
How did it work?
Compare to the gate from The Gate to Xoran (1931) by Hal K. Wells, the Invasion Gate for Aliens from Monsters of Mars (1931) by Edmond Hamilton, the gateway from Wanderer of Infinity (1933) by Harl Vincent, Ramsbotham Gate from Tunnel in the Sky (1955) by Robert Heinlein, the farcaster from Hyperion (1989) by Dan Simmons.
The Jiffi-scuttler bridged distances non-spatially, through another dimension of some kind (they hadn't explained that part too clearly to him).
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'Bird-like robots now descended from the ceiling of the theatre...'
'The efficient robot waiter of the Sky Club had cleared away the remnants of an epicurean meal.'
'...in the tank the new body and the new mind and memory and life has taken almost instant form.'
'pirate three-vee satellites sanded out of orbit...'
'The atmosphere yielded its moisture with reluctance. It had to be coaxed down...'
'Want a life-companion... sir, I can get you up any style you want.'
