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"I was perfectly satisfied to write science fiction knowing that it would pay very little, that it would be seen by only a very few people."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Single Seat Scooter | ||
| A self-service monocycle. |
| At a stand beside the station Gersen selected a self-service cab -- a single seat scooter, gyroscopically balanced, with a transparent canopy. Two SVU in the slot gave him possesion for an hour. Stepping aboard, he drove north through the noisy streets of Sailmaker Beach. |
| Technovelgy from The Star King,
by Jack Vance. Published by Berkeley in 1964 Additional resources -
|
You might be interested in an even earlier sf gyroscopically balanced monocycle - the tumblebug from Robert Heinlein's 1940 novella The Roads Must Roll.
For a very cool design prototype version, see EMBRIO Embodies The Tumblebug; don't miss the real-life invention - the Eunicycle Single-Wheel Gyro-Stabilized Scooter.
Also, compare to the one-man car from The Houses of Iszm (1954) by Jack Vance.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for this item.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Star King
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Tech news articles related to The Star King
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
| The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist |
| Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology |
| Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat |
| Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late |
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'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
