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"The thing that I'm most interested in at the moment is the so-called Infinite Energy solution - the possibility of finding new ways of tapping into virtually limitless sources of energy."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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| Venus Cities Float In Atmosphere | ||
| Cloud cities on Venus. |
This is an early reference to the idea that Venus, the surface of which could not reasonably support human life, could be colonized with "cloud cities".
In the story, baking loaves of bread using helium to help it rise has resulted in millions of loaves taking flight.
| Radio Venus reported to its winged audience that Earth's inhabitants were establishing food depots in the upper air, preparatory to taking up permanent aerial residence "such as we have always enjoyed on Venus." |
| Technovelgy from Bread Overhead!,
by Fritz Leiber. Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1958 Additional resources -
|
I'm not sure how long the idea of building cloud cities on Venus has been around. Scientist and sf author Geoffrey Landis suggested the idea in 2008. See the stories below for more details.
The Hawkmen in Flash Gordon had a city that floated in the sky, as well, in the 1930's.
The floating island in the sky idea is historically old; see the entry for laputa in Gulliver's Travels (1726).
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Bread Overhead!
More Ideas
and Technology by Fritz Leiber
Tech news articles related to Bread Overhead!
Tech news articles related to works by Fritz Leiber
Venus Cities Float In Atmosphere-related
news articles:
- Cloud City On Venus?
- Revisiting A Cloud City On Venus
- HAVOC Over Venus ala Bespin
| ISS Plagued By Leak - Again! |
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
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'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
