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"[Science fiction is ] That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Rifle Range (Virtual Shooting Range) | ||
| Virtual skeet shooting gallery with clay pigeon traps created by aliens. |
Enoch Wallace was a man with a rural upbringing who fought in the Civil War. When he was approached by aliens about running a way station in the galactic chain, he was asked if he would like some sort of entertainment center built into the station. And what sort of "clay pigeons" are offered for skeet shooting?
| The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock that folded up to underlie the ridge... Finally the gallery widened into an oval room and the walls here were padded with a thick gray substance that would entrap a bullet and prevent a ricochet. Enoch walked over to a panel ... and thumbed a tumbler, then stepped quickly out into the center of the room... He stood on a little hillock and in front of him the land sloped down to a sluggish river bordered by a width of marsh. Enoch felt the hair crawling on his scalp and he thrust the rifle out and ready. The very air of this place - wherever it might be - seemed to crawl with danger. |
| Technovelgy from Way Station,
by Clifford Simak. Published by Doubleday in 1963 Additional resources -
|
In this particular skeet shooting session, Enoch had his choice between the following "clay pigeons":
The range had a remarkable variety of contests; in the thousands of times Enoch had used the rifle range, he had never encountered the same creatures twice.
See the entry for dimensino for the very best in totally immersive alien entertainment technologies; from Time is the Simplest Thing, also by Simak.
Here come the toads!
Enoch spun around again, to look back toward the river. Crouched at the edge of the grass was a line of toad-like monstrosities, six feet long and standing three feet high, their bodies the color of a dead fish belly, and each with a single eye, or what seemed to be an eye, which covered a great part of the area just above the snout. The eyes were faceted and glowed in the dim sunlight, as the eyes of a hunting cat will glow when caught in a beam of light.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Way Station
More Ideas
and Technology by Clifford Simak
Tech news articles related to Way Station
Tech news articles related to works by Clifford Simak
Rifle Range (Virtual Shooting Range)-related
news articles:
- ST-2 Shooting Simulator Like Simak's Virtual Rifle Range
- Microsoft Patents Immersive Display
- Microsoft RoomAlive - Your Basement Is The Game
- 'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century
| 'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century |
| Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79 |
| Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off |
| Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon |
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'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
