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"I'm very taken by mythology. I read it at a very early age and kept on reading it. Before I discovered science fiction I was reading mythology."
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![]() For his novel Ringworld, Larry Niven came up with the idea of a flycycle to cover great distances in reasonable style. They resembled flying motorcycles; what would happen if you lost control or were about to crash? Flycycles were open to the sky like a motorcycle.
It happens that flycycle also were equipped with automatic deceleration in the event that a crash was imminent.
In rereading the novel, I wondered if perhaps Niven had stumbled onto the idea of a car air bag. However, I'm pretty sure that airbags were available in some form in the late 1960's. Also, inflatable bags were proposed for aircraft during WWII, so it is an idea with a long history. If you're interested, take a look at how airbags work. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
'Courier Commons' By Tomorrow Lab, From Karl Schroeder (and Bruce Sterling?)
'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
Jetson-Style Clockwork Robot Nail Salon Coming To Target Near You
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
Mechanical Horse Sculpture Gallops In Place
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Make Sunsets' Tweaks Climate By Atmospheric Alteration
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
Hotels Turn To Robots As Human Workers Regroup
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
Changesite Mineral To Be Mined On Moon By China
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
Tongue-Controlled Tong Wearable Mouth Computer
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
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