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"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford
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| Wall in the Air | ||
| An invisible barrier that protects an entire island or city. |
As far as I know, this is the earliest example of this idea in science fiction.
| They only could tell us that they had been taught from the Sun Island, a far-off land of the sea. Sometimes, they said, the tide was low and we could walk on dry rocks to the isle. Sometimes there was a “wall in the air.” Then no one could get there...
“That is the Sun Island. The angel-man lives there.”
Before the bird people slept he ordered the construction of a small, strong stone house, with two great cellars stored with fuel, food and oil. This was built as near the island as possible. The glow of brightness made continual day around it, but warmth hardly penetrated the impassable wall in the air... “This day only the wall in the air is removed. The bird people are asleep. I can take you there quickly!” |
| Technovelgy from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star,
by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné. Published by Not Known in 1887 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the lanson screen from The Lanson Screen (1936) by Leo Zagat, the spindizzy from Cities in Flight (1957) by James Blish, the langston field from The Mote in God's Eye (1974) by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle) and the bobble from The Peace War (1984) by Vernor Vinge.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star
More Ideas
and Technology by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné
Tech news articles related to Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star
Tech news articles related to works by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné
| Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction |
| Infrared Contact Lenses To See In The Dark |
| Can 'Tactical Umbrellas' Shield One From Drones |
| Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners |
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'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
