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"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Moving Roadway | ||
| A roadway that is in motion, with seats and kiosks, that goes around curves. |
This is an reference to this idea; see below for the earliest instance.
| It was not a roadway at
all, as Graham understood such things, for in the
nineteenth century the only roads and streets were
beaten tracks of motionless earth, jostling rivulets of
vehicles between narrow footways. But this roadway
was three hundred feet across, and it moved; it moved,
all save the middle, the lowest part. For a moment,
the motion dazzled his mind. Then he understood.
Under the balcony this extraordinary roadway ran swiftly to Graham's right, an endless flow rushing along as fast as a nineteenth century express train, an endless platform of narrow transverse overlapping slats with little interspaces that permitted it to follow the curvatures of the street. Upon it were seats, and here and there little kiosks, but they swept by too swiftly for him to see what might be therein. From this nearest and swiftest platform a series of others descended to the centre of the space. Each moved to the right, each perceptibly slower than the one above it, but the difference in pace was small enough to permit anyone to step from any platform to the one adjacent, and so walk uninterruptedly from the swiftest to the motionless middle way. Beyond this middle way was another series of endless platforms rushing with varying pace to Graham's left. And seated in crowds upon the two widest and swiftest platforms, or stepping from one to another down the steps, or swarming over the central space, was an innumerable and wonderfully diversified multitude of people. |
| Technovelgy from When the Sleeper Wakes,
by H.G. Wells. Published by The Graphic in 1899 Additional resources -
|
This reference is a generation earlier than Heinlein's The Roads Must Roll. See rolling road. However, the street slides from Mrs. Maberly: Or, The World as it Will be (1836) by an Anonymous Author, are even earlier.
Of course, the sliding walkways shown at the 1893 Chicago Exposition and the 1900 Paris Exposition were a real technology.
Here is a beautiful video of the Paris Exposition walkway.
Here is a kinetoscope of the moving sidewalk from the 1900 Paris Exposition made by Thomas Ediston.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from When the Sleeper Wakes
More Ideas
and Technology by H.G. Wells
Tech news articles related to When the Sleeper Wakes
Tech news articles related to works by H.G. Wells
Moving Roadway-related
news articles:
- Japan Automated Cargo Transport
| 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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'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
