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"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Celestial Armamentarium | ||
| A small crystal planetarium, in which the stars and planets surrounding Aerlith are seen. |
The humans on Aerlith have little technology, having been stranded there and cut off from whatever remains of human civilization in the galaxy. Some artifacts remain, however; is it a crystal ball or a planetarium?
| "I examined this globe, and indeed it seemed to hold all of space; within it floated stars and planets, all the bodies of the cluster. "Look well," said Joaz Banbeck, "you will neer see the like of this anywhere. It was built by the olden men and brought to Aerlith when our people first arrived..." "It is a celestial armamentarium," said Joaz. "It depicts all the nearby stars, and their positions at any time I choose to specify." |
| Technovelgy from The Dragon Masters,
by Jack Vance. Published by Galaxy in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Using this device, Joaz Banbeck (the novel's protagonist) is able to predict that the Basics, a race of aliens with superior technology, might soon be paying them a visit.
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| Looking Glass Display Good Enough For Science Fiction, Fantasy |
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'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.
