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"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
- Gregory Benford
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| Automatic Light Switch | ||
| A device that senses if an illuminated room is empty, and turns off the light. |
Waste not, want not - a saying made for the lunar environment.
| As they left their joint office, Strong, always penny conscious, was careful to switch off the light. Harriman had seen him do so a thousand times; this time he commented. "George, how about a light switch that turns off automatically when you leave a room?"
"Hmm- but suppose someone were left in the room?" "Well... hitch it to stay on only when someone was in the room- key the switch to the human body's heat radiation, maybe." "Too expensive and too complicated." "Needn't be. I'll turn it over to Ferguson to fiddle with. It should be no larger than the present light switch and cheap enough so the power saved in a year will pay for it..." |
| Technovelgy from The Man Who Sold The Moon,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Shasta in 1950 Additional resources -
|
This kind of switch exists today, of course; they are cheap enough to pay for themselves in a year or so of use.
I don't know if this idea is original to Heinlein or not; commercial light switches for use in homes have been around since the 1890's, if not a bit earlier.
Heinlein continues his justification for such a device, proceeding along in a vein that seems to have some validity today.
"You can if the power continues to be rationed. There is a power shortage now; and there will be a bigger one."
Thanks to an anonymous reader, new to Technovelgy.com, who left this tip on the contact page.
Strong objected. "It's no good commercially. Switching of a light when you leave a room is a matter of temperament... If a man hasn't got it, you can't interest him in such a switch."
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| Your Solar Electric Paint Is Ready, Larry Niven |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
