Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I've got this beautiful panoramic three-dimensional painting of Mars based on Martian photos. It's 30 feet wide. You can pick out every pebble on the Martian landscape. And who'd have dreamed you could do that?"
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Television Sheet | ||
| A large, flat screen television set. |
Very early description of this idea; it appears to be complete in itself (the picture does not require a projector to put the image onto the sheet),
| "You have a good room here. Have you tried your television sheet? Probably did not know you had one, did you? Here it is over on this apparently blank wall. Let me turn off the lights and tune in for you. Do you like opera? I can get some good heavy opera from Berlin, or, perhaps, you rather see the Follies or a good Burlesque show. How about it? They are playing cricket over in Australia and I can get that for you.” Let’s see a good song and dance show for the tired business man,” suggested Haggard. “I hear that the show, “ADAM NEEDS A MADAM,” is worth seeing.” Drach turned off the lights and tuned in on the musical comedy. And for the next two hours the chorus girls pranced and danced and sang, and they were seen and heard just as well in the hotel room as they would have been in the best seat of the old time theater. |
| Technovelgy from The Threat of the Robot,
by David H. Keller. Published by Science Wonder Stories in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Even college undergrads preferred to watch events on television:
What was the end result of giving people no reason to leave their homes?
This prediction is all the more amazing when you consider what television with just 30 scan lines of resolution looked like in the 1920's:
Why, even the undergraduates do not come out to support their team, but prefer to see the game in their rooms or frat houses.
You destroyed the best there was in sport, took away the pleasure of attending amusement in a mass, and, by placing all entertainments in the home, you turned mankind into a selfish, introverted, anti-social animal, who cared for little save his own entertainment.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Threat of the Robot
More Ideas
and Technology by David H. Keller
Tech news articles related to The Threat of the Robot
Tech news articles related to works by David H. Keller
Television Sheet-related
news articles:
- Large Flexible Plastic Sheet Displays
| Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink? |
| I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display |
| Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large |
| iPhone Air Fulfils Jobs' Promise From 2007 - A Giant Screen! |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
