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"I feel like I've been very fortunate in that I've stuck like a burr to the dog-leg of the next generation of nerdism. I've been carried into the XXIth century on Bill Gates' pants-cuff."
- William Gibson
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| Alien Life Form | ||
| Living organisms of non-Earth origin. |
This is likely the first use of this great phrase.
| As in the past, I have tried not to invent things that are too far removed from life as we know it on this Earth. The weird ‘whip’, for instance, has its Earthly counterpart not only in the ant-eater, but in the sphinx-moth,which sports a hoselike tongue a good deal longer than its own body. Cousins to the ‘Venusian buzzard’ can be found under any microscope in the biology lab. While the Murri, of course, finds its obvious image in the Proboscis Monkey‥. I do this because I feel that if a reader has some basis of comparison, when reading about alien life forms, he will be able to visualize the story more clearly and perhaps give himself an added measure of enjoyment and appreciation. |
| Technovelgy from The Hothouse Planet,
by Arthur K. Barnes. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1937 Additional resources -
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Tech news articles related to The Hothouse Planet
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur K. Barnes
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
