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
"I was driving a dynamite truck when I was 14 years old in North Carolina."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Terraforming | ||
| The process of modifying a planetary surface to resemble those of an ideal earth; affects the entire biosphere. |
This is probably the first instance of the word; the concept is implicit in other, earlier stories.
| He had been the original claimant of Obania, forty years ago; and Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock, only two kilometers through—by sinking a shaft to its heart for the paragravity installation, generating oxygen and water from mineral oxides, releasing absorptive gases to trap the feeble heat of the far-off Sun. |
| From Collision Orbit,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Astounding in 1941 Additional resources -
|
This idea had been used before; in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898), the Martians seem to be making parts of the Earth over for their own use.
The idea of terraforming is used explicitly in Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, a 1930 novel, which describes human beings terraforming Venus.
Another notable instance occurs in reverse in David Gerold's War Against the Chtorr series (1983); aliens are said to be "chtorriforming" the Earth.
Most sf fans will recall the Genesis device from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) which can quickly and easily terraform planets devoid of life. It can also be used to do a "make over" of inhabited planets, the existing life being folded into the Genesis matrix. Dr. McCoy was particularly offended by this kind of use, saying "According to myth, the Earth was created in 6 days. Now, watch out! Here comes Genesis. We'll do it for you in 6 minutes!"
Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Collision Orbit
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Williamson
Tech news articles related to Collision Orbit
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Williamson
Terraforming-related
news articles:
- NASA Debates Terraforming Mars
| Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go |
| Very Large Structure - A Megamachine |
| Ten SF Houses Of The Future |
| Blueseed Offshore Floating Corporation Ready By 2014 |
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.
|
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
