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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
 |
| Drinking Bulb | ||
| A small container, used for drinks. |
| Jim suddenly remembered the drinking bulb in his hand. He drank from it, hospitably passed it to Steve. |
| Technovelgy from The Warriors,
by Larry Niven. Published by Worlds of If in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Louis Wu gets an unusual invitation on his 200th birthday: to accompany several aliens on a trip to see a place called Ringworld. I'm not really sure what they're drinking from, or what they look like, but they sound kind of, well, tasty.
Oh, fine. Louis sucked at the bulb an anonymous donor had handed him. It held vodka and droobleberry juice and shaved ice. The kzin's tail lashed restlessly. "Why should we not ride with an avowed maniac? You must be madder than most, to wish to ride with a kzin."
Droobleberry juice? Don't ask; it might be alien. But every sentient species needs to take some sort of liquid refreshment (don't they?); and serving it in a bulb seems to meet everyone's needs. So why can't I buy one?
I'm not sure, but I think one of the key innovations with this device is that it combines the container and the straw; as a parent, one of the frustrations of using a juice bag is locating and inserting the straw.
Also, it occurs to me that this item would probably be a good idea under weightless conditions. And if the pens that write upside down (or in weightless conditions) sold, why wouldn't drinking bulbs?
Compare to plastibulbs from The Proud Robot (1943) by Lewis Padgett, the water bulb from Pohl and Kornbluth's 1952 classic The Space Merchants and the Clearsac from The Water Knife (2015) by Paolo Bacigalupi.
"Perhaps I was not strictly fair with you, Louis. My species judges me mad."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Warriors
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to The Warriors
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Drinking Bulb-related
news articles:
- On-Orbit Space Coffee Cup
| Sleep Pods At Daxing International Airport |
| Amazon Blimp Parent Drone Concept |
| Tortoise Mobile Smart Stores |
| Sony Pocket Air Conditioner Is Phil Dick's Idea! |
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'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
