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 try to sit down at the typewriter four times a day, even if it's only five minutes, and write three sentences. And if I feel like going on, or if something turns me on I'll just keep writing till I'm written out."
- Roger Zelazny

Gulbrandsen Machine  
  Device strips away every mediating impulse, leaving a person with only the most intense drives.  

“My friend had a wife and three children. They were in Cloud City at the time of the People’s Uprising. You know about that?” Seeing me nod wearily, he went on, “His family was slaughtered by the revolutionists; butchered to death. But my friend got away. As I said, he was a brilliant man, and like most brilliant men, he bordered a bit on madness. When his family was wiped out, he ran away into the jungle and never came back. I went in to see him, once. He had built an instrument which could reshape man’s brain, because he hated everyone, Terran and Venusian alike. He hated humanity.” Sawtell was grinning drunkenly, and a nagging fear began to bite at me.

“This machine he housed in a building, and he is there with it today. Whenever a human being walks into the building, the machine begins to function. My friend will die someday, but his machine will never run down. It’ll liberate the subconscious mind of all who approach it, making them prey to its drivings. It will wipe away all the mental blocks in conscious thinking.”


(Gulbrandsen machine from 'No Dark Gallows For Me' by John Jakse)

Out of the darkness loomed the figure of a man, seated cross legged on a shelf of stone. He wore a tattered robe, and he looked, how many years old in the knowledge of mankind?

“Welcome to the House of Gulbrandsen. I trust that your true wants shall be satisfied.” That was all he said. Jan whimpered softly behind me.

And then, I realized that something was emanating from that machine on the wall. Something that swept into my mind, over and through it. Something so terrible that even now I cannot describe it, can only see its devilish results.

That machine seemed to probe my mind, as I instinctively knew it was probing Jan’s. It stripped away the layers of consciousness, one by tearing one, until it reached' the root of all being. It tore- and flayed, making me ashamed and sick, as if I had been suddenly standing at the altar of a church, stark naked before the congregation. That was how the machine humiliated. The thing. . .raped. . .our minds.

Technovelgy from No Dark Gallows For Me, by John W. Jakse.
Published by Fantastic Adventures in 1951
Additional resources -

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from No Dark Gallows For Me
  More Ideas and Technology by John W. Jakse
  Tech news articles related to No Dark Gallows For Me
  Tech news articles related to works by John W. Jakse

Articles related to Culture
Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones
Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million
California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone

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>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

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

Science Fiction in the News

When Colds Threaten You Can't Do This - Or Can You?
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'

Beautiful Visualization of Dawn Spacecraft
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'

Biological War: A Scenario
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'

Pole-Dancing Stripperbot Robot
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'

Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand!
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'

Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones
'We'll show them whose planet this is!'

Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
'The electronic body analyzer had been developed...'

Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'

VaMEx Biomimetic Mars Robot Inspired By Skink
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.