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"I love that computer science has made mathematics into something like an experimental science. I was never all that good at proving things, but I love doing computer experiments."
- Rudy Rucker
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| Sonic Curtain (Sound Lock) | ||
| An undersea sound curtain that keeps larger animals out. |
The protagonist of this set of stories is a man who does not exist. Present when the countries of the world pooled their data, he arranged to leave his data out of the world's data sphere. He can also get back in to manipulate information, becoming whoever he wants to be.
In this story, he is investigating a murder at an undersea park; the park has an unusual means of keeping unwanted large predators out while welcoming friendlier animals.
| Each of the four areas is enclosed by a sonic wall, a sound barrier that keeps everything outside out and everything inside in... At a number of points the wall possesses sound locks - a pair of sonic curtains several meters apart, which are operated by means of a simple control located on the bottom. Dolphins are capable of teaching one another how to use it ... |
| From My Name is Legion,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Del Rey in 1976 Additional resources -
|
This is remarkably similar to a known behavior of humpback whales called bubble feeding. Humpback whales blow air from their blow holes while slowly spiraling to the surface; the sound and bubbles concentrate their small prey in a small area. The whales then swim through this narrow spiral, gulping their prey more efficiently.
I don't know if this is an original idea of Zelazny's or not. The patent for the Infraacoustic/electric fish fence wasn't filed until 1995.
See also this idea, which uses infrasound, which are acoustic signals with frequencies below 20 Hz, which alarm fish.
For another example of an adjustable animal barrier, see the sonobarrier from Frank Herbert's 1977 novel The Dosadi Experiment.
From the marvelous short story 'Kjwalll'kje'k'koothailll'kje'k in the collection noted in the citation above.
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