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"A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Suspensor Chair | ||
| A chair that suspends itself above the floor. |
In Dune, the suspensor technology contrasted oddly with the feudal politics and mentality of the people. The science of suspensors is not explained, but that is typical of the novel, and was typical of the mentality of the characters. They distrusted science.
| An ellipsoid desk with a top of jade-pink petrified elacca wood stood at the center of the room. Veriform suspensor chairs ringed it, two of them occupied. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
This scene takes place in Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's meeting room, or apartment area. The Baron owned entire planets. The luxury was in the materials and veneers, not the technology; suspensor technology was widely used.
This sort of invention seems impossible; how can it be possible to generate a field that nullifies (or opposes) gravity? And how big would the generator have to be?
However, there are different approaches to problems; see the entry for gravity web also by Frank Herbert, for a slightly different approach than a generator.
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'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
