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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
 |
| Autobus | ||
| Robot-guided public transportation. |
| THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold, it was certainly preferable to traveling by hipp. But hipp travel was unavoidable from here on. The trip to Aquia verged on the wet side of the planet—the side from which burst the mighty floods. So, added to steep, rocky drops, impassable by autobus, were the dank, muddy flats which only the hipp could traverse. |
| Technovelgy from Tidal Moon,
by Stanley G. and Helen Weinbaum. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1938 Additional resources -
|
The hipp are the ubiquitous riding animals of Ganymede.
Amherst had served four terrestrial years on the watery planet as collector for Cree, Inc., moving from town to town gathering the precious medicinal moss, to take it finally to Hydropole, the rocket port, for trans-shipment to Earth.
He was one of the hundreds of such collectors for the giant company, each with his own route, each picking his own way from town to town, riding his hipp (the sea-horse of Ganymede, Hippocampus Catamiti) through the wild torrents of the afterfloods, past mountains whose locked valleys were apt to spill countless millions of tons of water upon him with no warning save the crash of the bursting mountain walls.
Isaac Asimov fans may recall his 1953 short story Sally (1953):
"You're exaggerating, Jake. The automatobuses get turned off every night."
Another early mention is ascribed to Henry Kuttner writing in The Little Things in 1946:
He hopped one of the robot buses when it stopped.
Hydropole, south polar city of Jupiter’s third major moon, Ganymede, was a chilly town at all seasons with its thirty degree Fahrenheit mean, and its variation of only ten degrees. But it was certainly the only settlement on the satellite that was worthy of the title of city.
(Hipp from 'Tidal Moon' by the Weinbaums)
"Now you listen to me." I raised my voice because I was just too mad to be polite anymore. "When you turn off Sally's motor, you hurt her. How would you like to be kicked unconscious?..."
(Read more about automatobuses)
Buses without drivers moved close to the curb and stopped at intervals. The lamp posts gave a different sort of light...
(Read more about robot bus)
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Tidal Moon
More Ideas
and Technology by Stanley G. and Helen Weinbaum
Tech news articles related to Tidal Moon
Tech news articles related to works by Stanley G. and Helen Weinbaum
Autobus-related
news articles:
- San Francisco Autobus
- NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
- 'Robovan' Name Already Taken - Elon, Try These
| Nifty Folding Electric Bicycles! |
| Boring Company Drills Asimov's Single Vehicle Tunnels |
| Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said |
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
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'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'The Dillard people had performed a miracle and put all the works in a girl-modeled case.'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
