Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Pent House | ||
| An island in the sky - a hermetically sealed skyscraper isolated entirely from its surroundings. |
A wealthy man creates a mystery skyscraper - the penthouse apartment is to be sealed for five years with no means of escape.
| "...I am building, and am just about finished with it, a seventy-story apartment house. On the top is a pent-house which is rather unusual in architecture and size. It is really most complete in every way, and entirely self-sustaining as far as all service is concerned. That gives it complete isolation. It is really a lonely island in the air; but instead of a sky for a roof it has a roof of glass, opaque glass of a very satisfactory thickness. Underneath the floor, in something that might be termed a basement, I have built storeroom which are very large.
 (The Pent House from Amazing Stories, December 1932)
|
| From The Pent House,
by David H. Keller. Published by Amazing Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
I'm strongly reminded of this story, in which people were voluntarily placed in a habitat for a full year, to simulate what it would be to live on Mars:
Not an exact match, but close. Read more at NPR.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Pent House
More Ideas
and Technology by David H. Keller
Tech news articles related to The Pent House
Tech news articles related to works by David H. Keller
Pent House-related
news articles:
- Pent-Up NASA Scientists Simulate Life On Mars
| Real-Life Macau or Ghost In The Shell |
| Galini 3D Printed Sleeping Pod Tiny Houses |
| Seasteading Floating Cities |
| Aequoreas Floating Village 3D Printed From Ocean Junk |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'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.
