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"Fuzzy logic tries to get machines to think like people do, with inexact fuzzy terms."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Glowglobe | ||
| Floating spherical light bulb with organic energy source. |
Lighting is important to any decorating scheme; the lighting used in science fiction also sheds light (pun intended) on the technology available to the people in the story. On Dune, there is always the contrast between primitive tribal psychology and technology more advanced than we now possess
| Paul came to his senses, feeling the sand needles sting his exposed cheeks. We are committed, he thought. He put an arm around the signalman's shoulder, said: "Leave the equipment! There's more in the tunnel." He felt himself being pulled away, Fedaykin pressed around him to protect him. They squeezed into the tunnel mouth, feeling its comparative silence, turned a corner into a small chamber with glowglobes overhead and another tunnel opening beyond. |
| From Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
You can't really tell from this passage, but other uses make it clear that these globes glow without any apparent external power source (they don't seem to be plugged in anywhere).
Many thousands of years later, this device is still in use, though its forms have changed; see pole-tethered glowglobe.
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'I had a small can of powdered alcohol disguised as tooth powder...'
'The jeweled hands clutching drinks (and the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers)...'
'It cut her out of the stream of vehicles and reduced the speed of her car...'
'A planet-wide chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
