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"[Science fiction is] an integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious."
- Gregory Benford
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| Hawking Mat | ||
| About two meters long and one meter wide, made of shielded monofilaments, with a bright textile design - okay, it's a flying carpet. |
Pure fun. This is a great treatment of an ingenious idea - a technological implementation of a pure fantasy. The mats are used to great effect in the novel, neatly coinciding with the themes of carefree youth explored.
| It had been more than a century since old Vladimir Sholokov... had handcrafted the first hawking mat for his beautiful young niece on New Earth... Over the decades the toys had become almost absurdly popular - more so with rich adults than with children - until they were outlawed on most Hegemony worlds. Dangerous to handle, a waste of shielded monofilaments, almost impossible to deal with in controlled airspace, hawking mats had become curiosities reserved for bedtime stories, museums, and a few colony worlds. |
| From Hyperion,
by Dan Simmons. Published by Doubleday in 1989 Additional resources -
|
In a particularly nice touch, the controls for a Hawking mat are actually part of the design of the "carpet."
Here's what it feels like to fly on one:
"Hang on, I'm going to take control." The hawking mat lurched again, dipped once and then fell steadily. I held on with both hands and resisted the urge to scream...
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- Princeton's Magic Carpet
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| Hyperloop Transport Proposed By Tesla's Elon Musk |
| Evacuated Tube Transport Idea Is 200 Years Old This Year! |
| myTaxi iPhone App May Transform Taxi Business |
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