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
"You have to budget the number of fuzzy rules you use to control a system. It turns out, you can state the optimality principle in three words: 'patch the bumps.'"
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Resilian | ||
| A natural fiber that is as strong as steel. |
Nature often provides strong structures or fibers in a organic setting. Fertile ground for the imagination of science fiction writers.
| Blantham reached in his pocket,
produced a small white box. Magnus Ridolph, snapping back the top, found within a
cluster of inch-long purple tubes, twisting and
curling away from a central node. They were
glossy, flexible, and interspersed with long
pink fibers. He shook his head politely.
“I’m afraid I can’t identify the object.” “It’s ticholama,” said Blantham. "Resilian in its natural state.” “Indeed!” and Magnus Ridolph examined the purple cluster with new interest. “Each of those tubes,” said Blantham, “is built of countless spirals of resilian molecules, each running the entire length of the tube. That’s the property, naturally, which gives resilian its tremendous elasticity and tensile strength.” |
| Technovelgy from The Howling Bounders,
by Jack Vance. Published by Startling Stories in 1949 Additional resources -
|
As is Vance's wont, he provides additional details:
H e leaned back in his chair, tapped
his pencil thoughtfully against his
notebook. He returned to the mnemiphot,
dialed ahead to the preparation of resilian
from the raw ticholama. The purple tubes,
he found, were frozen in liquid air, passed
through a macerator, which pulverized the
binding gums, soaked in hesso-hexylic acid,
then alcohol, dried in a centrifuge, a process
which left the fibres in a felt-like mat. This
mat was combed until the fibers lay parallel,
impregnated with hesso-penthol and compressed into a homogeneous substance — resilian.
Compare to krimskell fiber from Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert.
He stepped into the TCI office, where he
was received with courtesy. He requested and
was permitted use of the mnemiphot. Seating
himself comfortably, he found the code for
resilian, ticked it into the selector, attentively
pursued the facts, pictures, formulae, statistics drifting across the screen. He noted the
tensile strength — about the same as mild
steel, and saw with interest that resilian
dampened with hesso-penthol welded instantly into another piece of resilian.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Howling Bounders
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Vance
Tech news articles related to The Howling Bounders
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
| Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick |
| GNoME AI From DeepMind Invents Millions Of New Materials |
| Omniphobic Liquid-like Surfaces And de Camp's Telelubricator (1940) |
| MXenes - Atomic-Thin Metal Sheets Now Easier To Make |
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
'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
