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
"By the time I can take people out to where Hubble is looking, they won't be human anymore, by a long way."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Bobble (Confinement Sphere) | ||
| A sphere of force that entirely isolates the interior from the rest of the universe. |
| "Confinement spheres - bobbles - are not so much force fields as they are partitions, separating the in- and outside of their surfaces into distinct universes. Gravity alone can penetrate. The Tucson bobble was orginally generated around an ICBM over the artic. It fell to earth near its target, the missile fields at Tucson. The hell bomb inside exploded harmlessly, in the universe on the far side of the bobble's surface.
As you know, it takes the enormous energy output of the Authority's generator in Livermore to create even the samllest confinement sphere... But once established you know that a bobble is stable and requires no further inputs to maintain itself. "Lasting forever," put in old Schelling. It was not quite a question. "That's what we all thought, sir. But nothing lasts forever..." "So, gentlemen, it appears that - like all things - bobbles do decay. The time constant depends on the sphere's radius and the mass enclosed..." |
| Technovelgy from The Peace War,
by Vernor Vinge. Published by Bluejay Books in 1984 Additional resources -
|
Here's an excerpt that gives you some sense of the size that bobbles can be:
For the hemispherical protection of cities, compare to the wall in the air from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star (1887) by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné, the lanson screen from The Lanson Screen (1936) by Leo Zagat, the duds from The Fairy Chessmen (1946) by Lewis Padget, the spindizzy from Cities in Flight (1957) by James Blish and the Langston Field from The Mote in God's Eye (1974) by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle).
The silver arch of the force field that enclosed Vandenberg and Lompoc seemed to float halfway up the sky. No structure could possibly be so big. Even mountains had the decency to introduce themselves with foothills and highlands. The Vandenberg Bobble simply rose, sheer and in-substantial as a dream. So that glistening hemisphere contained much of her old world, her old friends. They were trapped in timelessness in there, just as she and Angus and Fred had been trapped in the bobble around the sortie craft. And one day the Vandenberg bobble would burst....
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Peace War
More Ideas
and Technology by Vernor Vinge
Tech news articles related to The Peace War
Tech news articles related to works by Vernor Vinge
| MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech |
| Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville |
| US Army IBEX Exoskeleton Walks Troops Out Of Danger |
| Terraformer Industries Make Methane |
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
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
