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"Science fiction is what scientists would do if they could - if they had enough grant money, enough time, and enough brains to do the wonderful things they would like to do."
- Greg Bear
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| Tand | ||
| A metal sculpture, made in contemplation, which has great meaning for the initiates. |
In The Dragon Masters, a Hugo-award winning book by Jack Vance, a curious race of people called "sacerdotes" inhabit caves in the tiny world of Aerlith. Every adult, to become a full member of the group, must complete a tand.
| Deep under Banbeck Scarp, in a cubicle lit by a twelve-vial candelabra, a ... white-haired man sat quietly. On a pedestal at the level of his eyes rested his tand, an intricate construction of gold rods and silver wire, woven and bent seemingly at random. The fortuitiveness of the design, however, was only apparent. Each curve symbolized an aspect of Final Sentience; the shadow cast upon the wall represented the Rationale, ever-shifting, always the same. |
| Technovelgy from The Dragon Masters,
by Jack Vance. Published by Galaxy in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Once the tand is completed, it is examined by a group of elders. Every curve and angle has a relationship to every other. It presages the ability of the young person to follow the Rationale, the strict code of conduct of the sacerdotes.
The novel first appeared in the August, 1962 issue of Galaxy magazine. This marvelous book loses nothing in readability after forty years.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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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...'
