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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge
 |
| Single Seat Scooter | ||
| A self-service monocycle. |
| At a stand beside the station Gersen selected a self-service cab -- a single seat scooter, gyroscopically balanced, with a transparent canopy. Two SVU in the slot gave him possesion for an hour. Stepping aboard, he drove north through the noisy streets of Sailmaker Beach. |
| Technovelgy from The Star King,
by Jack Vance. Published by Berkeley in 1964 Additional resources -
|
You might be interested in an even earlier sf gyroscopically balanced monocycle - the tumblebug from Robert Heinlein's 1940 novella The Roads Must Roll.
For a very cool design prototype version, see EMBRIO Embodies The Tumblebug; don't miss the real-life invention - the Eunicycle Single-Wheel Gyro-Stabilized Scooter.
Also, compare to the one-man car from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for this item.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Star King
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Tech news articles related to The Star King
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
| Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon |
| Engineer Creates Crazy Motorized Track Hospital Bed |
| Xiaomi Self-Driving Self-Balancing Scooter |
| AV-STEP To Permit Sale Of Vehicles Without Steering Wheels Or Pedals |
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'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
