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"Science and science fiction, how do you even distinguish the two?"
- Jerry Pournelle
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| Kite-Copter Car | ||
| An observation car suspended below a device that supplies lift. |
How best to convey paying guests over rough ground, while minimizing noise? Balloons work, but are very slow.
| The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain. The car proper was suspended by a pair of cables from the kite-copter which flew five hundred feet overhead. The operator, seated in the nose of the car, worked pitch and attack by remote control, and so could skim quietly five feet over the ground, hover over waterfalls, ridges, ponds, other areas of scenic beauty with neither noise nor the thrash of driven air to disturb the passengers. |
| Technovelgy from The Kokod Warriors,
by Jack Vance. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1952 Additional resources -
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and Technology from The Kokod Warriors
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Tech news articles related to The Kokod Warriors
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Kite-Copter Car-related
news articles:
- Hotelicopter Hovering Hotel
- Parajet SkyCar Adventure
- I Want A Curiosity Rover Sky Crane!
- Drone-Based Aerial Hammock
| Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode |
| Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon |
| Engineer Creates Crazy Motorized Track Hospital Bed |
| Xiaomi Self-Driving Self-Balancing Scooter |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
