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
"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Selector Card | ||
| Pneumatic delivery of book films by using a mechanical form of data storage; selector cards - probably punch cards. |
This story was written just at the dawn of computing. This very modern (for 1940!) library distributed books on microfilm based on punched cards turned in as requests. For those who don't recall, "punch cards" are a form of data storage. Each card has a set of areas for punched holes. Each area represents a bit of data.
| I had a handful of selector cards. I handed them to the vestal virgin at the desk and waited while she fed them into the hopper. |
| Technovelgy from The Puppet Masters,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
It is interesting that computers were already seen as a mystical device in a holy place, which ordinary mortals could not approach - hence the "vestal virgin" at the front desk to mediate for the computer system.
Today, of course, we have a wide variety of options for data storage. But even today, there are glitches. Back in the day, the big disaster was dropping all your punch cards and mixing them up (you not only needed to keep them safe, they had to be in the right order!). These days, the biggest problems are incompatibility (this computer can't read that data storage unit) or static discharges wiping out your data.
Fans of retro computing should certainly check out the Punch Card Gallery. Other forms of data storage are shown in the Information Technology History - Data Storage and Elaboration page.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Puppet Masters
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Puppet Masters
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
| Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer |
| Cortex 1 - Today A Warehouse, Tomorrow A Calculator Planet |
| Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness? |
| Jetson Orin Nano Super 70 Just $249 |
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
'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.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
