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"There's no point in making a mistake unless you understand the mistake so that you don’t make it again."
- Alfred Bester
 |
| Time Scoop | ||
| Retrieved objects from other points in time. |
| There, beyond the steel door, was the time scoop. He recognized it at once. The mirror. The long metal rods, ending in claws. Like Berkowski's theoretical model - only this was real.
 (Time Scoop from 'Paycheck' by Philip K. Dick) |
| Technovelgy from Paycheck,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Imagination in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Here's a description of what happens when it is used:
From the dark circle a claw appeared, a metal claw, joined to a shimmering rod. The claw dropped, swinging in a wide arc. The claw swept the paper from Kelly's fingers. It hesitated for a second. Then it drew itself up again, disappearing with the paper, into the circle of black. Then, silently, the claw and the rod and the circle blanked out. There was nothing. Nothing at all.
Perhaps the earliest use of this general idea can be found in a 1939 story by Edmond Hamilton published in Startling Stories:
In the space above them something moved. A dark space formed, A circle. The space stirred. Kelly and Rethrick stared up, frozen.
('The Space Visitors' by Edmond Hamilton)
Compare to the time dredge from Time Dredge (1942) by Robert Arthur.
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'If the biological robots were not living creatures, they were certainly very good imitations.'
"Everybody and his dog, it seemed, wanted to live out in the country; transportation and communication were no longer isolating factors."
'... the new typewriter that could be talked to, and which transposed the spoken sound into typed words.'
'... underneath they consisted of networks of cooling tubes against the skin.'
'My cars talk to one another. I have no doubt about it...'
'... the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell.'
