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"Tokyo homeless people reiterate the whole nature of living in Tokyo in cardboard boxes, they're only slightly smaller than Tokyo apartments, and they have almost as many consumer goods. It's a nightmare of boxes within boxes."
- William Gibson
 |
| Solid Power | ||
| A concentrated form of easily accessed energy to supply any need. |
| "...I'll tell you this - Vliet's fortune isn't in money. I learned that before I came here. It's in 'solid power'."
"Solid power" was, he knew, the most super-valuable substance in the solar system. For it wasn't really a substance at all, but compressed energy "frozen" by temporary transformation into artificial atoms. Trillions of units of power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice. And a suitable transformer would, when desired, turn it back into almost limitless power. "... Vliet has at least ten cubes of it." Kruppa was saying. "Whew!" Crane whistled softly. "The stuff's worth a million Earth dollars a cube." |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on the Tenth World,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Here's how it works when hooked up:
Inside this pump-like object was the hastily assembled electrical apparatus which started the disintegration of "solid power' back into pure energy, by smashing one of its artificial pseudoatoms, the process being self-continuing thenceforward until damped out.
The thing they had partially built resembled outwardly a stock pump whose spout pointed toward the stockade, and atop which was a broad, round hopper for the supply of carbon required as a chemical "governor" of the process.
Compare to the shipstones from Friday (1982) by Robert Heinlein and the kink springs from The Calorie Man (2005), by Paolo Bacigalupi.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Revolt on the Tenth World
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and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to Revolt on the Tenth World
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Solid Power-related
news articles:
- NDB Nuclear Waste Battery Lasts A Lifetime
- Nuclear Batteries May Pack Inner Punch
- Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
| 3D Printing A 12-Meter Boat Hull |
| China Still Working On Rescue Robot That Eats People |
| Can One Robot Do Many Tasks? |
| Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm |
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'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
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'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
