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"Another reason why privacy could be just a passing fad, terrorism is going to get too good. [1997]"
- Larry Niven
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| Probability Time Wave Tube | ||
| A device that allows the user to see every possible event. |
True genius is rare - but maybe it's better to have a great many minor tinkerers, than just one genius.
| "They had the tube then. They called it the PTW tube - Probability Time Wave. They'd been trying to make a television set that would see through walls..." "Their PTW tube caught and displayed every possibility that was ever to exist. And somewhere in that vast sweep of probability, every possible thing existed. Somewhere, the wildest dream of the wildest optimist was, and became fact." |
| From Elimination,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1936 Additional resources -
|
The short story Elimination appears in the collection Who Goes There, published in 1948. These stories were published under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart.
See also the infinite improbability drive from Douglas Adams' 1979 novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Elimination
More Ideas
and Technology by John W. Campbell
Tech news articles related to Elimination
Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
Probability Time Wave Tube-related
news articles:
- LEXID Sees Through Walls To Next Apartment
- See People Through Walls
| Skyline Robotics Instantiates Heinlein's 'Window Willie' Skyscraper Robot |
| Melting Permafrost Endangers Infrastructure |
| MIT And Rice Create Blade Runner Photo Analysis |
| Whisper Aero Ultraquiet Electric Aviation |
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'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
'The Consul remembered his first glimpse of the kilometer-long treeship...'
'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
