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"I wrote many novels which … contained the element of the projected collective unconscious, which made them simply incomprehensible to anyone who read them, because they required the reader to accept my premise that each of us lives in a unique world."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Planetary Globe | ||
| A craftsman's model of a planet. |
| He took the globe down and set it on the table before him. It had been begun in the early days of the voyage, seven subjective years past in time and one hundred and ninety light years back in space, to compensate the first bitter pain of loss. It was made of green chromastite, with the refraction planes of the mineral subtly altered to simulate the varying depths of the sea. An overlay of rich, brown jade had been partially carved into a relief of continents and islands. It was to have been his masterpiece - a tiny model of Eiollyra.
He turned the globe slowly in his hands. The north continent was still blank and the poles wanted frosting. There was a lot of work to be done - delicate, painstaking carving with an energy needle - before it would be a perfect replica of the real world, the first world, the world whose warming sun, the astrophysicists said, would explode into a nova.. The First Commander slowly set up the magnifier and arranged the three-dimensional patterns. He pulled a transparent shield over his eyes and began to carve a tiny mountain chain... |
| From Star of Wonder,
by Julian May. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Most science fiction fans recall the imperial handicraft globe of Arrakis from Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert.
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'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
