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
"If we're going to be consistent and advocate freedom of speech we have to advocate freedom of encrypted speech too. The genie is out of the bottle, cryptologically."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Twonky | ||
| A futuristic artifact left by time travelers in the past which, if discovered, could cause a paradox. |
There are really two worlds in Millennium. One is the world of our present (okay - your past - the mid 1980's). The other is the far future. It is not made clear at the beginning of the book what the purpose of time travel is, and I won't spoil your discovery. This is a great word; not only is it original, but it's fun to say. Is it a verb or a noun?
| I said, "What's up?" "We had an indication of a twonky developing," he said, with deplorable grammar. A twonky used to mean some anachronistic object left behind during a snatch, but lately people had begun using the word to refer to the paradox situation that object tended to generate. "Shortly after the twonky alarm, one of your girls lost her stunner on the plane." |
| Technovelgy from Millennium,
by John Varley. Published by Berkley Books in 1983 Additional resources -
|
When a traveler goes back in time, great care must be taken not to disturb the timestream, the chain of events that leads to the future under consideration in the novel. Their greatest fear is what happens if there is a "Grandfather Paradox", which comes up in most discussions of time travel. The basic idea is as follows: if I go back in time and kill my grandfather, how will I ever be born? Paradoxes like these are taken by some as proof that time travel cannot exist; in this future, time travel exists, but what happens if you cause a paradox in the past? Will the future you exist in - cease to exist?
The word "twonky" was first used by Henry Kuttner writing as Lewis Padgett in his short story "The Twonky".
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Millennium
More Ideas
and Technology by John Varley
Tech news articles related to Millennium
Tech news articles related to works by John Varley
| Is There A Subterranean Ocean? |
| The Robotic Shopping Cart Of The Future |
| Arctic Resource Jackpot An Old Wish |
| Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive |
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
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
