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"People are choosing to allow television and Electronic Arts to do all their imagining for them."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Distance Viewing | ||
| Look at any scene anywhere on Earth. |
| the Prefect of Giphantia presented me with a Mirrour. Thou canst only (says he) guess at things: but with thy rod and that glass, thou art going to hear and see both at once; nothing will escape thee; thou wilt be as present to whatever passes. From space to space (continued the Prefect) there are in the atmosphere portions of air which the spirits have so ranged, that they receive the rays reflected from the different parts of the earth, and remit them to this Mirrour: 57so that by inclining the glass different ways, the several parts of the earth’s surface will be visible on it. They will all appear one after the other, if the Mirrour is placed successively in all possible aspects. It is in thy power to view the habitations of every mortal. |
| Technovelgy from Giphantia,
by Charles-François Tiphaigne de La Roche. Published by Robert Horsfield in 1761 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the panoramic viewer from Childhood's End (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke.
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