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
"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."
- Theodore Sturgeon
 |
| Todos Santos Independency | ||
| A city enclosed in a single building. |
Oath of Fealty is a modern-day book, set in near-future Los Angeles. Or actually, just outside it in the Todos Santos Independency, a self-contained city in a single building. The notion of an arcology (and the word) are not inventions of the authors, but the novel is a realization of what it would be like to live in that sort of space.
| The building was a thousand feet in height rising starkly from a square base two miles on a side. It rested among green parklands and orange groves and low concrete structures so that it stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors. The sheer bulk dwarfed everything in view.
... How many residents are accommodated here?
Design Goal: 275,000 "Roughly a quarter of a million, then," Sir George said. Bonner nodded. "In four square miles of building, or about ten square miles of buildings and grounds. That's about the highest population density ever achieved on Earth anywhere. Remember the studies a few years ago that proved that if you pack a lot of people into a small area they'd all go insane? Doesn't seem to have happened." |
| Technovelgy from Oath of Fealty,
by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven). Published by Timescape in 1981 Additional resources -
|
The book title refers to the social structure that evolved within the Independency. Do the people who live in a building like a medieval walled city start to act medieval? Read the novel and judge for yourself.
The first architect to describe the idea of an arcology was probably Paolo Soleri, who created the Arcosanti project. He wrote:
The first science fiction author to describe the idea was Rev. Louis Tucker, who described a cubic city in his 1929 short story of the same name.
Others have since used it - like Gibson with nanotech buildings and Dan Simmons with his Hive arcologies.
Compare to the cube city from The Cubic City (1929) by Louis Tucker, D.D..
"The problem I am confronting is the present design of cities only a few stories high, stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles. As a result of their sprawl, they literally transform the earth, turn farms into parking lots and waste enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods and services over their expanses. My solution is urban implosion rather than explosion."
Niven and Pournelle were perhaps the first of the science fiction authors to really try to fully visualize what it would be like to live in one.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 5 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Oath of Fealty
More Ideas
and Technology by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven)
Tech news articles related to Oath of Fealty
Tech news articles related to works by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven)
Todos Santos Independency-related
news articles:
- MegaLondoner Arcology Fantasized
| Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin |
| Elegant Bivouac Shelter Produces Water And Electricity |
| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
| With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need |
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
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
