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"Retire? Yeah, I want to die with my head in the typewriter. That's my idea of retirement."
- Alfred Bester
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| Life Detector | ||
| A device that was capable of detecting living tissue within a set radius. |
This device was able to sense the presence of life directly, without using auxiliary signs (like carbon dioxide or heat emission).
| The antennae of the Life Detector atop the OP swept back and forth in a rhythmic halfcircle like so many frozen sticks brittle with rime ice...
One operator - drugged to shivering wakefulness - stood watch in the OP. The space around him was barely six feet in diameter, crammed with equipment, gridded screens glowing a pale green with spots that indicated living flesh: a covey of ptermigan, a possible Artic fox. Every grid point on the screens held an aiming code for mortar fire. |
| Technovelgy from Cease Fire,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Conde Nast in 1958 Additional resources -
|
See the entry for Life Detector Shield for more discussion.
This is an early use of the concept; it comes ten years before the "sensor scans" of Star Trek fame.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Cease Fire
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and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Cease Fire
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Life Detector-related
news articles:
- Life Detector Robot To Find Life On Distant Worlds
- Urey Life Detector
- LifeReader Senses The Enemy Through Walls
- Cougar20-H Robot Hears Your Breathing
- NASA FINDER To The Rescue In Nepal
- Is There Life In Outer Space? Will We Recognize It?
| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
| Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved |
| BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
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'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
