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"I think we're still on that topic, still trying to figure out what computers are, how they change us, why we use them."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Wings of the Wind | ||
| A most extraordinary personal flying conveyance. |
| Since Charion had been detailed to take care of Hobart, Rollin Hobart attached himself to the sinister-looking courtier. He held out his umbrella and asked: “What’s this thing?”
“The wings of the wind,” replied Charion. “I know; but what does it do?” “We’re traveling on the wings of the wind, your dignity. How do you expect us to do that without any wings of the wind to travel on?” “Yes, but how does it work?” “Oh. You grip the handle tight, and when the king opens his, you open yours and it takes you. We used to travel as the crow flies, but Laus’ crow-wings were dangerous to use, so last year he invented this.” “Who’s Laus.” Charion looked annoyed. “The Wizard of Wall Street, of course.” “Huh? Don’t get it.” Charion concealed his exasperation with visible effort. “Laus is the royal wizard; Wall Street is a street running around the top of the city wall of Oroloia, on which is the royal wizard’s official residence. Now do you understand?” “Ready, everybody?” cried King Gordius. Everybody raised his umbrella. “Go!” shouted the king, and snapped his wing of the wind open.
 (Wings of the wind from 'The Undesired Princess' by L. Sprague de Camp)
Hobart did likewise with his. At once a terrific wind smote him from behind and almost wrenched the umbrella out of his hand. His feet left the ground, and he was trailing through the atmosphere behind the device. It swooped this way and that. When he got a glimpse of the rest of the party, now quite a distance off, he observed that they were all sailing along serenely in a sort of formation. The trick apparently was to grip the handle in both fists just in front of one’s solar plexus. Hobart did, and soon found that he could manage the contrivance easily.
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| Technovelgy from The Undesired Princess,
by L. Sprague de Camp. Published by Unknown Worlds in 1942 Additional resources -
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'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...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
