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"What we're doing pop culturally is like burning the rain forest. The biodiversity of pop culture is really, really in danger."
- William Gibson
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| Float-home | ||
| Living entity genetically designed for use as a houseboat. |
In the novel, the plot turns on whether or not the largest entities in the known universe will form attachments or feel love for human beings. These entities are familiar to all of us.
Rather than getting comfort from convenience devices based on machinery, the author uses animals to convey simple feelings at the most basic animal level. In this excerpt, Jorj X. McKie arrived at a sort of living houseboat to meet his lover.
| She had already vacated the float-home, and McKie could sense the living entity's resentment. He had shattered the idyll which the float-home had been conditioned to create. The float-home would return to its former affability once he was gone. They were gentle creatures, susceptible to sentient irritation. |
| Technovelgy from Whipping Star,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1969 Additional resources -
|
What kind of creature would you start with - to end up with a float-home? Maybe a manatee? While you are thinking about it, take a look at an Australian houseboat tour.
Be sure to take a look at a Herbert classic - the chairdog.
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Float-home-related
news articles:
- Burj Dubai Tower Update
| Why Not Move A Warehouse District? |
| Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin |
| Elegant Bivouac Shelter Produces Water And Electricity |
| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
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'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
