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"I realized there was a heavy-duty change coming in biology, and I could write a really compelling novel about catastrophic evolution, punctuated equilibrium."
- Greg Bear
 |
| Kink-Spring | ||
| A device that stores energy with near-perfect efficiency. |
In the future envisioned in the novel, fossil fuels have been exhausted. And how do you replace an energy source as small and portable as gasoline?
Just for purposes of comparison, consider that a gallon of gas (and you know how big a gallon of milk is) is the energy equivalent of 500 hours of human labor. For about $3.50 - that's how cheap energy is in the US. For now.
| Lalji unmoored and took his place at the tiller. He unlocked the kink-springs and the boat whirred into the deeper current, stored joules dripping from its precision springs in a steady flow as molecules unlocked, one after another, reliable from the first kink to the last. |
| Technovelgy from The Calorie Man,
by Paolo Bacigalupi. Published by F&SF in 2005 Additional resources -
|
Kink-springs are charged with animal work:
Compare to the shipstone from Robert Heinlein's 1982 novel Friday.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing this item out.
The kinetic man unjacked Lalji’s kink-springs from the winding treadmills and stacked them beside the slavering mulies. Lalji lifted a spring, grunting at its heft. Its mass was no different than when he had brought it to the winding shop, but now it fairly seemed to quiver with the mulies’ stored labor.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Calorie Man
More Ideas
and Technology by Paolo Bacigalupi
Tech news articles related to The Calorie Man
Tech news articles related to works by Paolo Bacigalupi
Kink-Spring-related
news articles:
- Velkess Energy Storage System (It's A Flexible Flywheel!)
| Hybrid Wind Solar Devices |
| BeamBike Solar Power Canopy For Electric Bikes |
| REALLY Remote Control Excavators |
| 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.'
