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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl

Acceleration Couch  
  A chair designed for use in during periods of high acceleration (multiple gravities).  

This chair seems more like a chaise lounge; it is designed for comfort at high accelerations.

Ship's gravity edged upward, slowly enough to give the crew time to adjust, a full minute to rise to three gravities. Blaine felt two hundred kilos settling into this acceleration couch. Throughout the ship men would be moving with the wary attention one gives to lifting weights, but it was not a crippling acceleration.

Blaine felt very much at ease in his contoured armchair. It had headrest and fingertip controls, lapboard, power swiveling to that the entire bridge was in view without effort, even a personal relief tube. Warships are designed for long periods of high gravity.

Technovelgy from The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle).
Published by Simon & Schuster in 1974
Additional resources -

When I first read the term, I thought it might refer to a couch version of an acceleration chair; that is, a device shared by three or four people.

For the more information on traveling at high acceleration, see acceleration chair, also from Mote in God's Eye.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Mote in God's Eye
  More Ideas and Technology by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle)
  Tech news articles related to The Mote in God's Eye
  Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle)

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