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"[Science fiction is ] That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Stereo Tank | ||
| A receiver for three-dimensional televised images. |
The familiar use of the term to an authority figure helps to establish it in the mind of the reader. In the era before the hologram, this was the way that people visualized a three-dimension imaging system. You had to be able to walk around it to see all the details.
| "If we don't show the Man from Mars in the stereo tanks pretty shortly, you'll have riots on your hands, Mr. Secretary." |
| Technovelgy from Stranger in a Strange Land,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Putnam in 1961 Additional resources -
|
If this was really three-dimensional, would you be able to walk behind a newscaster and see the back of his head? On the other hand, maybe it was really "stereo" vision, that is, an experience designed to be experienced from one direction - like a concert broadcast in stereo, with the illusion of depth and direction of sound.
Curmudgeon and contrarian Jubal Harshaw also refers to it as a "babble box", which is probably an inside joke for sf fans, who recall the babble machine from H.G. Wells' 1899 novel When the Sleeper Wakes. (Thanks to R. Philip Reynolds for that observation in a comment on another item.)
You might also want to see the entry for stereovision, from the same novel.
Heinlein probably derived the idea for this from the 3D tank from EE 'Doc' Smith's 1934 story Triplanetary.
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
