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"Science fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Dirtside | ||
| The surface of a planet. |
Very early use of this phrase.
| Sam stopped a passing engineer's mate. "Hey, shipmate - we're fresh caught. Where's the crew's mess?
"Clockwise about eighty and inboard, this deck." He looked them over. "Fresh caught, eh? Well, you'll find out." "Like that, huh?" "Worse. A madhouse squared. If I wasn't married, I'd 'a' stayed dirtside." |
| Technovelgy from Starman Jones,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Scribners in 1953 Additional resources -
|
This is a common phrase in science fiction. Here's another example, from Niven and Pournelle's Oath of Fealty:
Compare to Farside from A Fall of Mooniest (1961) by Arthur C. Clarke.
"Sinclair wants to do some outside work while we're dirtside." He took out his pocket computer and wrote quickly with the attached stylus.
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'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.'
'...like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life... in his hands.'
'My homeland is being threatened by the Replicators. Thus far all attempts to stop them have failed.'
'A robobus had just rolled up to the curb.'
'And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr. Smile.'
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
