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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Gravity Train | ||
| An underground railway system that utilizes gravity for acceleration. |
This same idea is a major plot 'device' in the 2012 version of the Total Recall movie.
| They joined the line for the gravity train to Archimedes. The four of them boarded, the car was sealed, and Lilo's weight dropped away as the car fell down the inclined tunnel for almost four hundred kilometers. Somewhere under the Appenines the tunnel begain to slope up again, gradually slowing their speed to a crawl as the car nosed into the elevator which took them up to inhabited levels. |
| Technovelgy from The Ophiuchi Hotline,
by John Varley. Published by Quantum Science Fiction in 1977 Additional resources -
|
This idea was also used in Hugo Gernsback's 1911 novel Ralph 124c 41 + - see the entry for Sub-Atlantic Tube.
And what is the best shape or curve for this tunnel to follow? See the discussion in the article for gravity-assisted subway from Larry Niven's 1976 story A World Out of Time.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Ophiuchi Hotline
More Ideas
and Technology by John Varley
Tech news articles related to The Ophiuchi Hotline
Tech news articles related to works by John Varley
| Tesla Electric 'Giga Train' Operational In Germany |
| San Francisco Autobus |
| Volvo's Autonomous Truck |
| Eviation Alice Electric Plane First Flight |
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'...they moved with the ease of dandelion puffs.'
'...some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre...'
'These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern...'
'...the meteor caught and halted just as a small boy catches a swift ball in his cap.'
'We have decided that it shall be but one ship... it must contain everything needed to take us through the generations.'
'You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself...'
