Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"It's also important to vary your stimuli. I always look for new things to shock the system. Just as you make muscles grow by shocking them, you make the mind grow by shocking it."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Psychophone | ||
| A device that allows the user to tune their mind to a future reality - a time-traveling device. |
In the story, the author argues that while the body is stuck in the present, the mind is able to move more freely. But you need a very specific gadget to do it.
| It looked just like one of those old-fashioned crystal sets, except that the crystal was very big, very shiny and was set in a horizontal vacuum tube. There was the same single dial, the same cat's whisker. Attached to the lot by a length of flex was what might have been a pair of headphones, except in place of the phones were a pair of polished, smoothly rounded copper circles shaped to fit outside the ears and close against the skull. |
| Technovelgy from The Mechanical Mice,
by Maurice G. Hugi. Published by Astounding Stories in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Here's how it works:
This is a very early use of the "alternative futures" idea in science fiction.
When you imagine what the future will be like, you make a characteristic choice of all the logical possibilities, you pick your favorite from a multitude of likely futures. The psychophone somehow tunes you into a future reality. It makes you depict within your mind the future as it will be shaped in actuality, eliminating all of the alternatives that will not occur.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Mechanical Mice
More Ideas
and Technology by Maurice G. Hugi
Tech news articles related to The Mechanical Mice
Tech news articles related to works by Maurice G. Hugi
| Time Crystals Can Now Be Seen Directly |
| China Steals Strato Airship Design From Google App Engine |
| Biohybrid Jellyfish Explore The Ocean |
| 3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
