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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
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| Diveskin | ||
| Special wetsuit that allows a diver to function at extreme depths. |
Most of the action in Starfish takes place much deeper in the ocean than a person could venture unprotected. Extremes of temperature and very high pressure would make it impossible. One of the technological adaptations is the skinsuit, a special form of wetsuit.
| She twists out of reach without a word, bending down to seal the [dive]skin on her leg. Fischer watches the leggings slide up her body. They seem almost alive. They are almost alive, he remembers. The 'skin's got these reflexes, changes its permeability and thermal conductivity in response to body temperature. Maintains, what's the word, homeostasis. |
| Technovelgy from Starfish,
by Peter Watts. Published by Tor Books in 1999 Additional resources -
|
It is made out of a copolymer that can withstand temperatures of 150 degrees centigrade.
The wetsuit, which the skinsuit is modeled on, was invented in the early 1950's. The basic idea is that a small amount of water is allowed into the suit, and is then trapped against the body; the neoprene insulates this warm layer. That's why a wetsuit has to be skin tight.
Compare to skin suit from Dinosaur Beach (1971) by Keith Laumer, transkin from Parasite Planet (1931), by Stanley G. Weinbaum, kloraderm from Old Man's War (2005), by John Scalzi and skintight from War Dogs (2014), by Greg Bear.
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Diveskin-related
news articles:
- Breathable Carbon Nanotube Membrane For 'Smart Uniforms'
| Is There A Subterranean Ocean? |
| The Robotic Shopping Cart Of The Future |
| Arctic Resource Jackpot An Old Wish |
| Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive |
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'...a robot detector circuit closed, activating a bell."
'Alex did not find it surprising that people... were electronically minting their own cash.'
'I had determined that my first attempt should be a visit to Mars.'
To follow the user like a pet while carrying their cargo!
'Deveet unhooked his catch and laid it on the bank beside him. It was a metal fish.'
'...waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'Seen close it was not completely flexible, but made instead of pivoted and smoothly finished segments.'
