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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
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This device has a very sixties kind of name and function; it is like Polaroid sunglasses for your house.
Here's another quote:
Some buildings have glass that is designed to let a certain amount of light (and energy) enter the building. I don't know of any buildings that allow the adjustment of light entry.
Edwin Land founded the Polaroid Corporation and created one of the last century's great brands, the Polaroid Land Camera. Land invented the first commercial use for polarizing material in 1929.
Polarizing filters contain long molecules that allow the transverse electromagnetic waves of one direction to pass while absorbing the waves vibrating in the other direction. Here's a way to visualize how it works. Think of the slots in a picket fence. Now think of a tall wavy line drawn on a big piece of poster board. If you orient the poster board so it is parallel with the slots in the picket fence, the "light wave" can go through. If you orient the poster board so it is parallel with the ground, the "light wave" cannot go through the slots.
Polarizing material is like a picket fence to light waves; only some of the light can pass through. That's how your polaroid sunglasses work; they filter incident light.
In his 1954 novel The Houses of Iszm, Jack Vance references a polarized window directly:
The window depolarized, and daylight entered the room. Farr awoke, sat up in bed, and reached for a menu.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
SpaceX Intros Extravehicular Activity Suit
'Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere.'
Athena Smart Security Guard Robot With Face Recognition
'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'
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'It's area, and its consequent light-gathering capacity, was many times greater than any rigid mirror...'
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'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.
SpaceHopper Microgravity Robot Lands On Its Feet
'...a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football.'
Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
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