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"it slowly dawned on me that the landscape of science is maybe what interests people a great deal in science fiction."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Pocket Projector | ||
| A personal device for replaying media. |
| "Yes I've heard that sort of talk; Seldon, Second Empire, and so on. They put kids to sleep at night with the stuff. The young squirts curl up in the spare room with their pocket projectors and suck up Seldon thrillers. But it's strictly non-adult. Non-intelligent adult anyway." The trader shook his head. |
| Technovelgy from Foundation and Empire,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1952 Additional resources -
|
One of the issues that fascinates me about this idea is the question of personal playback devices that were both small enough to fit in a pocket and were inexpensive enough to be given to children. In the modern era, we're used to the idea of the Walkman and the Nintendo game device, but what was available in the 1950's?
The only example I can think of is the Viewmaster, a simple mechanical device that used a circular piece of cardboard with tiny photographs for viewing. The Viewmaster was introduced in 1939.
Here's a sample commercial from the 1980's, thanks to the magic of Youtube:
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Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
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'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
