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"People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research. I just enjoy reading the stuff, and some of it sticks in my mind and fits into the stories."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Golden Lights | ||
| Another unusual use of the suspensor field; lights are suspended in it. |
Another aspect of the Baron Harkonnen's multimedia center and conference room (no windows for better security) was an area artfully lighted using just the bulbs themselves suspended in air.
| Light glowed in the room from golden balls hanging in mobile suspensor fields. |
| From Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
Another interesting detail is the idea that the suspensor fields are mobile, that is, adjustable. The lights could be moved, not just turned or brightened and dimmed.
Inevitably, some elements of any science fiction writer's work reflect the time in which they were written. This technovelgy item reminds me very strongly of track lighting, which was introduced in the early 1960's.
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'the registration number which the traffic control automatically photographed as she left the controlway...'
'It could maintain a steady six miles per hour...'
'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'...without burning a single hydrocarbon molecule to injure the diseased atmosphere any further.'
'Bird-like robots now descended from the ceiling of the theatre...'
'The efficient robot waiter of the Sky Club had cleared away the remnants of an epicurean meal.'
'...in the tank the new body and the new mind and memory and life has taken almost instant form.'
'pirate three-vee satellites sanded out of orbit...'
'The atmosphere yielded its moisture with reluctance. It had to be coaxed down...'
