Science Fiction Dictionary: Terms, Ideas and Technology

Science Fiction Dictionary: Ideas, Terms and Technology
( 3946 Inventions Available)

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

Device Name	Book/Story	Author	Date
Calculator Pad Used to make psychohistoric calculations	Foundation	Asimov	1951
Caleban Contact A form of telepathy based on the use of unimaginably enormous amounts of energy.	The Dosadi Experiment	Herbert	1977
Caliban Beachball Dwelling place for unusual lifeform who make jumpdoors possible.	Whipping Star	Herbert	1969
Call Notification Unit A small portable device that let you know that you had a phone call at your home.	Eye of Cat	Zelazny	1982
Caller Contact List A list of callers kept on the phone instrument.	The Age of The Pussyfoot	Pohl	1966
Calster A handheld device that printed legal currency on the spot.	Return from the Stars	Lem	1961
Camden Speedster A super sports utility vehicle (SUV); it drives on the highway, the water and jumps into the air for short periods.	Methuselah's Children	Heinlein	1941
Camera Tunnel A device that captures images of shredded documents from all sides for reassembly.	Rainbows End	Vinge	2006
Can City A cylindrical space habitat.	Hyperion	Simmons	1989
CAN-D Illegal narcotic chewed to alter the state of colonists.	The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch	Dick	1965
Cannibal Grass Genetically engineered grass that acts as a defense layer for a home.	Sparrowhawk	Easton	1990
Canola Oil Vegetable oil refined for use as fuel	Virtual Light	Gibson	1993
Capillotomer An automatic shaving machine	Beyond This Horizon	Heinlein	1942
Car Dashboard Drone Controller A screen and controls for using a remote drone.	Runaway	Crichton	1985
Car Sound Tape Otherwise silent vehicle uses a recorded engine sound.	The Cat Who Walks Through Walls	Heinlein	1985
Cardioplate A device that could take seconds or minutes off your life, one beat at a time (or all at once).	'Repent Harlequin' Said the Ticktockman	Ellison	1965
Carniculture Plants Industrial plants that grow meat protein.	Four-Day Planet	Piper	1961
Carniculture Vat Technology to grow meat sans animal.	Space Viking	Piper	1962
Carryall A flying wing (aircraft); used to pick up a sandcrawler (harvester factory)	Dune	Herbert	1965
Carson Circuit A means of distinguishing betweem millions of different information sources - the secret of the Internet.	A Logic Named Joe	Leinster	1946
Cartograph A device that shows you a record of your travels - a GPS readout.	The Cometeers	Williamson	1936
Cataclysmite A high explosive.	Little Fuzzy	Piper	1962
Catchpocket A small container in a stillsuit that stored reclaimed water.	Dune	Herbert	1965
Caterwheel A uniquely styled ground vehicle with fat, splayed out tires.	Sand Doom	Leinster	1955
Causality-violation Device (or Weapon) Any of a variety of technologies intended to exploit time travel as a weapon.	Singularity Sky	Stross	2003
Cavorite An antigravity metal; when it cools, whatever it covers will be impervious to gravitational forces.	The First Men in the Moon	Wells	1901
CCD Eyes Electronic eyes using charged-coupled devices provide a wide variety of functions.	Stone Lives	Di Filippo	1985
Celestial Armamentarium A small crystal planetarium, in which the stars and planets surrounding Aerlith are seen.	The Dragon Masters	Vance	1962
Celestial Atlas Planet-by-planet descriptions throughout known space.	No Planet Is Safe	Ellison	1958
Cellphone Credit Card Cellphone that can act as a credit card.	The Age of The Pussyfoot	Pohl	1966
Cellphone Tranquilizing Spray A mild sedative administered automatically by your cellphone.	The Age of The Pussyfoot	Pohl	1966
Cellphone Voice Mail Callers speak into their instrument, and the content of the call is stored by the network for the user to replay at will.	The Age of The Pussyfoot	Pohl	1966
Centipede Perfect craft for crawling through slushy, frozen lakes - on Titan.	Killing Titan	Bear	2015
Centipede-Machine Multi-legged transport.	Monsters of Mars	Hamilton	1931
Central City (Lunar Habitat) An early example of a non-military lunar habitat.	Earthlight	Clarke	1955
Central Computer A computer capable of running an entire city.	The City and the Stars	Clarke	1956
Central Guide-Beam A kind of signal that demonstrates the best possible path to a destination in space and even provides motive power.	Shell Game	Dick	1954
Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy Futuristic children's game.	Brave New World	Huxley	1932
Centrifugal Force Creates 'Artificial Gravity' Using centrifugal force in a rotating cylinder as a substitute for gravity.	The Prince of Space	Williamson	1931
Centrifuge Room A small room on a planetoid that is spun to create artificial gravity.	The Ophiuchi Hotline	Varley	1977
Cephalic Pattern Door A door that only opens for specific people.	The Zap Gun	Dick	1965
Cephalic Sniffer Device can locate an individual using brain patterns.	Clans of the Alphane Moon	Dick	1964
Cephalochromoscope (Cephscope) A brain-scan device with a screen to display neural patterns.	A Scanner Darkly	Dick	1977
Cephaloscope A device used to detect lying.	The Houses of Iszm	Vance	1954
Cephalotropic Dart A slim, short-range device that homes in on the brain wave pattern of the target.	Lies, Inc.	Dick	1964
Cerebral Microprocessors Added boost for maxxed out minds.	Millennium	Varley	1983
Chain Gun Device fires lengths of steel chain.	All Tomorrow's Parties	Gibson	1999
Chairdog A chair that is alive and partly sentient; it shapes itself to the person sitting in it.	The Tactful Saboteur	Herbert	1964
Chalf (Quick-Scribe Powder) A special powder that forms itself into words and symbols.	The Tactful Saboteur	Herbert	1964
Chalf-Memory Stick Device that organizes special dust in the shape of words and symbols.	The Tactful Saboteur	Herbert	1964
Chameleon Battle-Dress Camouflage that allows its wearer to visually blend into the environment.	Dorsai!	Dickson	1960
Chameleon Cloth Clothing that changes color and pattern to match its surroundings.	Dying of the Light	Martin	1977
Chardion Field Electronic 'envelope' that retained atmosphere on tiny worldlets.	Star of Dreams	Williamson	1941
Charging Arm A specialized device allowing a robot to charge itself.	Masters of Chance	Morrison	1941
Chart Cabinet Used in astrogation, this device can see the positions of stars and planets over a thousand year period.	One Against The Legion	Williamson	1939
Charted Planetoid Mines Charting the planetoids and minor bodies for mining purposes.	The Day We Celebrate	Bond	1941
Checker-City A city planned as a checker-board of alternating vegetation and buildings.	The Star-Roamers	Hamilton	1933
Cheekplate Container Special compartment of an exoskeleton; provides easy access to medical supplies related to survive heavy gravity environments.	A Specter is Haunting Texas	Leiber	1968
Chemelectric Afferent Nerve-Analogues An engineered sensory skin.	This Immortal	Zelazny	1965
Chemical Brain A purely chemical artificial intelligence.	The Chemical Brain	Flagg	1929
Chemical Orders Use of chemical triggers for behavior and behavior modification.	Hellstrom's Hive	Herbert	1972
Chemical Production of Food Creation of food in the laboratory rather than in the field.	Mizora: A Prophecy	Lane	1881
Chemotactic Artificial Jellyfish Artificial device modeled on jellyfish capable of seeking specific components of liquid.	Big Jelly	Rucker (w/B. Sterling)	1994
Chest Disc A voice activated wireless transmitter.	Armageddon: 2419 A.D.	Nowlan	1928
Chest-Lens Part of an automatic photograph-and-send system.	War Veteran	Dick	1955
Chevaline An open robotic vehicle for one person, shaped like a horse.	The Diamond Age	Stephenson	1995
Chicken Little Very early reference to meat grown in a vat for food.	The Space Merchants	Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)	1952
ChickieNobs Chicken meat sliced from a transgenic organism.	Oryx and Crake	Atwood	2003
Childcare Robot A robot constructed to take care of a small child.	Robbie (Strange Playfellow)	Asimov	1940
Chin Plates A means of control within a space suit helmet; switching between options with the chin.	Have Space Suit - Will Travel	Heinlein	1958
Chin Window An aperture that allows an astronaut to see his own feet (greater field of view).	Have Space Suit - Will Travel	Heinlein	1958
Chiphead A person whose organic brain has been effectively superseded by a firmware (integrated circuit or more advanced technology) device.	Nanotime	Kosko	1987
Chirpsithra Supercomputer An alien race thoughtfully provides mankind with blueprints for the most intelligent computer ever made.	Niven's Laws	Niven	1984
Chlorella Plantation A skyscraper designed for food production.	The Space Merchants	Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)	1952
Chlorophane Similar to chlorophyll but synthetic and far more efficient.	The Planet Strappers	Gallun	1961
Cholinesterase-Destroying Gas Horrific anti-personnel poison.	Lies, Inc.	Dick	1964
Chowlock A small opening in a space helmet for food insertion.	The Starfox	Anderson	1965
Christmas Bush Motile Robot Repair robot with extra-sensitive hands.	Rocheworld	Forward	1985
Chromoplastic Dew Collector A small, egg-shaped device that uses a special surface to collect morning dew on the desert planet of Arrakis.	Dune	Herbert	1965
Chronoscope A device used to see into specific internals of time.	Elimination	Campbell	1936
Chronoscopy Using a device to view different points in time.	The Dead Past	Asimov	1956
Chronovitameter Device that can determine a person's date of birth - and the date on which he or she will die.	Lifeline	Heinlein	1939
Chunker A device that fires small cubes of rubber; a non-lethal form of riot control.	Virtual Light	Gibson	1993
CIC Virtual Earth A software application that presents detailed information about the Earth.	Snow Crash	Stephenson	1992
Cider Press Device used to make acceleration above 1 gravity more tolerable for groundhogs.	Double Star	Heinlein	1956
Cinematophote (Blue Optic Plate) The first reference to a tablet-sized, handheld screen.	The Machine Stops	Forster	1909
Circuit Inhibiting Destructiveness Ensuring that robots take on the responsibility of pleasing their masters, and obeying their orders.	To Please The Master	St. Clair	1958
Circumlunar A large space habitat orbiting the moon.	Schismatrix	Sterling	1985
Citizen Journalism The notion that ordinary people can make use of technological tools like cellphone cameras and the Internet to provide information.	Earth	Brin	1990
City Fathers A set of computer systems which run every mechanical system in a city.	Cities in Flight	Blish	1957
City of Glass An entire city made of unique structural glass and ceramic.	The Godmakers	Herbert	1972
City of Space A very early reference to an enormous cylindrical space station.	The Prince of Space	Williamson	1931
City Ship A generation ship, a spacecraft that carries a people to another star.	Star of Wonder	May	1953
Civic Notification Distorter A device that subtly damages databases full of government information.	The Zap Gun	Dick	1965
Claim Beacon A electronic device that proclaims that a planet has been claimed by a given party.	Retief, the Long-Awaited Master	Laumer	1969
Clave Short for enclave (see also burbclave - autonomous suburban enclave)	The Diamond Age	Stephenson	1995
Claws (Attack Robot) Autonomous guard robots that attack living tissue.	Second Variety	Dick	1953
Cleaning Machine Warren A room or space set aside for machinery when not in use.	Mona Lisa Overdrive	Gibson	1988
Clearsac A simple device that filters water perfectly for reuse.	The Water Knife	Bacigalupi	2015
Click-Band Worn on the wrist, it helps you locate your transport.	The Meddler	Dick	1954
Cloaking Device A force field that renders an object invisible to human eyes as well as other sensor devices.	Balance of Terror	Schneider	1966
Clockwork Man A man from the future with an embedded mechanism to manipulate time.	The Clockwork Man	Odle	1923
Clone The aggregate of individual organisms descended by asexual reproduction from a single sexually produced individual.	The Clone	Thomas	1959
Clothing Size Scanner A device that scanned a living person to determine clothing sizes.	Sagramanda	Foster	2006
Cloud Sculpting Using gliders and chemical showers to shape clouds artistically.	The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D	Ballard	1967
Coal Mole Robotic device for asteroid mining chews through the interior, preparing raw materials for use	The Web Between the Worlds	Sheffield	1979
Coder Specialized humans who excel at engineering tasks.	Storm Thief	Wooding	2006
Coffee Cube Concentrated coffee that boils itself!	The Marching Morons	Kornbluth	1951
Coffiest It's coffee that you can't live without.	The Space Merchants	Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)	1952
Coffin Rack Capsule Hotel A hotel with very (very!) small rooms.	The Science Fiction Yearbook (ed. Jerry Pournelle)	Gibson	1984
Cogitator (The Chair of Reflection) A device which improves the rationality of the thinking processes.	The Consolidator	Defoe	1705
Cold Ray A device that pulled warmth from anything it was aimed at.	The Atomic Conquerors	Hamilton	1927
Cold-Beam Puts a cloud of extreme cold around the target.	War Veteran	Dick	1955
Coldlight A means of producing illumination that does not produce heat.	Sunward Flight	Zagat	1943
Cold-Pac Bin A special coffin-sized chamber used to maintain half-life.	Ubik	Dick	1969
Cold-Pack Technology for indefinite cold storage of human beings.	Dr. Futurity	Dick	1960
Cold-Rest Lowering body temperature and metabolic levels, as in hibernation; also called reduced temperature somnolence.	Methuselah's Children	Heinlein	1941
Cold-Sleep A form of induced suspended animation, in which a person enters a state like hibernation.	Between Planets	Heinlein	1951
Cold-Sleep A state of hibernation, created by lowered temperature and metabolism.	Methuselah's Children	Heinlein	1941
Coley Group A musical form that involves dancing in a field of weak microwaves.	The Shockwave Rider	Brunner	1975
Collapsar Jump Travel between collapsed stars in no time at all.	The Forever War	Haldeman	1974
Colony World A planet settled by a single group.	The Impossible World	Binder	1939
Color Generator A variable spectrum light source	The Killing Machine	Vance	1964
Columbiad An enormous cannon, sufficient in size to send a projectile to the Moon.	From the Earth to the Moon	Verne	1867
Combat Wasp Drone craft able to carry and direct a variety of submunitions.	The Reality Dysfunction	Hamilton	1996
Cometeering Exploring a comet!	Creatures of the Comet	Hamilton	1931
Comeye A portable video camera, used by the mobile functionary to keep in touch with office.	Heretics of Dune	Herbert	1984
Comlink Short for communications link; a small portable communicator.	Star Wars	Lucas	1976
Command Bracelet A wrist-borne device with a variety of capabilities.	Sagramanda	Foster	2006
Command Microphone A cloak that served as a microphone and public address system.	Diplomat At Arms	Laumer	1982
Command-Disk A device that sends out audible tones to control flesh-monsters.	Creatures of the Comet	Hamilton	1931
Commercial Fly An autonomous, fly-sized manufactured creature that presents commercial advertisements.	The Simulacra	Dick	1964
Communicate with Extraterrestrials Early plan to communicate with life on planets removed from the earth.	From the Earth to the Moon	Verne	1867
Communication Disk A wearable device that told the time as updated from a central source.	Exiles of the Moon	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Communications Implant A surgically implanted device enabling the user to communicate with computer networks.	Oath of Fealty	Pournelle (w/L. Niven)	1981
Communicator A small device that works to communicate over large distances.	Skylark of Valeron	Smith	1934
Communinet A public data network.i	Dune	Herbert	1965
Commute Disk Flying autonomous commuter vehicle.	The Chromium Fence	Dick	1955
Commute Ship Spacecraft used for traversing daily grind between Earth and the planet you work on.	Sales Pitch	Dick	1954
Commuter Cooling Unit A portable air conditioner for commuters.	The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch	Dick	1965
Compact Food Pastilles (Food Pill) One small tablet is a month's worth of food.	The Senator's Daughter	Mitchell	1879
Companion Implant Electronic device placed within the body; it has a wide variety of uses.	Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)	Sawyer	2003
Compassion Circuit A special robotic component that allows the robot to weigh harm and benefit in carrying out commands.	Compassion Circuit	Wyndham	1954
Composite Expert System Intelligent teaching software - a computer interface with a heart.	Twenty Evocations	Sterling	1984
Composite Living Forming a meld with other life forms.	The Day the Aliens Came	Sheckley	1995
Compulsive Subsonics An advertising agency works with every part of the audience's brain.	The Space Merchants	Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)	1952
Computational Textile Wearable computer sensors.	Pushing Ice	Reynolds	2005
Computer Generated DigItal Music A computer composes music with a few simple inputs from the user.	The Moon Goddess and the Son	Kingsbury	1979
Computer Humorist A computer acquires the ability to tell original jokes.	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress	Heinlein	1966
Computer Translator A computer translator; software that provides automatic translation when jacked into a data port.	Idoru	Gibson	1996
Computer Virus A software program that copies itself to other computers.	The Scarred Man	Benford	1970
Computer Vision (Artificial Eye) A device which, attached to a suitable computer, will allow the device to see.	The Metal Giants	Hamilton	1926
Computer Worm (Tapeworm) The first description of a set of computer codes that moves from one computer to another on a network as a coherent entity.	The Shockwave Rider	Brunner	1975
Computer-Controlled House A residence that is an autonomous robotic system.	The Martian Chronicles	Bradbury	1950
Computer-Created Dub Music created by an artificially intelligent computer for a specific audience.	Neuromancer	Gibson	1984
Computers Improve Computers The idea that it will be possible for computers to design more advanced computers.	The Feeling of Power	Asimov	1958
Computronium Intelligent matter; nanocomputing processors masquerading as ordinary material.	Accelerando	Stross	2005
Comsole (Home Communications Console) A home computer, connected to data services.	Imperial Earth	Clarke	1976
Concentrated Cosmic Radiation Passing through a region of intense radiation alters lifeforms.	The Face of the Deep	Hamilton	1942
Concentrated Light Beam of powerfully concentrated light pressure.	The Shining One	Schachner	1937
Concentro Concentrated synthetic food rations.	Armageddon: 2419 A.D.	Nowlan	1928
Concrete Boxes Self storage for your body - living space designed for people who spend most of their time ignoring their surroundings anyway.	Earth Made of Glass	Barnes	1998
Conductive Film A spray-on conductor capable of carrying a signal.	The Face	Vance	1979
Cone of Battle An offensive formation of space ships providing the ultimate in firepower.	Triplanetary	Smith	1934
Cone of Silence Distortion field that limits the carrying power of voice or other vibration; it accomplishes noise reduction with an image-vibration 180 degrees out of phase.	Cease Fire	Herbert	1958
Confinement Asteroid A place where asteroid miner's babies stay to experience some needed gravity.	At the Bottom of a Hole	Niven	1966
Conscious Farm Machines Farm machinery that worked on their own.	The Hidden Colony	von Hanstein	1935
Conscious Retarded Animation A kind of hibernation, but leaves the user fully conscious, but aging at an incredibly slow rate.	A Race Through Time	Wandrei	1933
Consolidator A craft for embarking on voyages through space.	The Consolidator	Defoe	1705
Construct An artificial being, a pastiche of living and robotic pieces.	Retief, the Long-Awaited Master	Laumer	1969
Construct (Digital) A stored version of a person's particular skills and personal approaches to problems.	Neuromancer	Gibson	1984
Construct (Pseudo-Relationship) An artificial intelligence person, serving as a companion for a human person not capable of forming real relationships.	The Mountain in the Sea	Naylor	2022
Construction Robot Autonomous robots work on construction sites.	Runaway	Crichton	1985
Consumption Robots Humanoid robots placed in the position of consuming material goods to relieve human beings of the burden.	The Midas Plague	Pohl	1954
Contact Venom A poison that is absorbed through the skin.	Twenty Evocations	Sterling	1984
Contragravity Suit A suit with antigravity.	Uller Uprising	Piper	1952
Contraterrene Matter (Antimatter) Contraterrene (CT) Matter (sometimes abbreviated "Seetee").	Collision Orbit	Williamson	1942
Control Disk	The Slave Ship From Space	Holmes	1931
Control Harness Connects to the brain and nervous system of a host organism for control purposes.	A Game of Unchance	Dick	1964
Control Helmet Direct control of a robot from the brain.	Dawn of the Demigods	Gallun	1954
Control Helmet A device which causes an entire race of people to think and feel the same as the wearer.	Easy Money	Hamilton	1938
Control Natural A person who is allowed to have an unmodified genetic makeup.	Beyond This Horizon	Heinlein	1942
Control Screen An alien display device.	Childhood's End	Clarke	1953
Control-Face A small liquid crystal display (LCD) unit linked to a larger network; gives a window onto your larger network world.	Idoru	Gibson	1996
Controllable Drone Army Darknet sorcerer uses gestures to control a network of drone servants.	Daemon	Suarez	2006
Controlway An automated highway system that takes full operational control of vehicles traveling upon it.	Methuselah's Children	Heinlein	1941
Conversion Gun The ray converts the heat in an object to light.	Hell Ship of Space	Kummer, Jr.	1940
Conveyor Ribbon A moving sidewalk.	Exiles of the Moon	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Cookie-Cutters Very small (corpuscle-sized) devices that can enter the blood stream and destroy an enemy from within.	The Diamond Age	Stephenson	1995
Cop Block A device that allows law enforcement officers to shut down the engine of a suspect's car or truck.	Quantico	Bear	2007
Copseyes A small floating "eye-in-the-sky" surveillance drone used by police in an extensive park.	Cloak of Anarchy	Niven	1972
CopSpace A virtual location for police lifelogs, official communications, paperwork, informational databases and evidence of all kinds.	Halting State	Stross	2007
Copter Harness A single person flying machine.	The Star Beast	Heinlein	1954
CORA - Coronary Alarm An implanted (or worn) ECG monitor that warns the user of coronary events.	The Fountains of Paradise	Clarke	1978
Coronium Ore A radiolite substance to revolutionize industry.	Roamer of the Stars	Wilson	1938
Corporol Preserves and maintains the body.	A Race Through Time	Wandrei	1933
Corpsicle Cryogenically frozen person who could (hopefully) be revived later.	The Age of The Pussyfoot	Pohl	1966
Corrosite Gas A highly corrosive gas.	The Machine That Thought	Callahan	1939
Cortical Stack Implanted hardware device that contains a backup copy of your mental self.	Altered Carbon	Morgan	2003
Cosmic Storm A vast tempest in space!	After World's End	Williamson	1939
Cosmic Teletype A device that utilizes the fourth dimensional continuum to achieve communication at great distances.	Cosmic Teletype	Jacobi	1938
Cosmo-Craft A spacecraft for traveling through time and space.	A Race Through Time	Wandrei	1933
Cosmoline (Warm Sleep) Special gel that offers healing and hibernation for space travelers.	War Dogs	Bear	2014
Cosmoquake Gravity waves ripple across the solar system.	Things Pass By	Leinster	1945
Court Robo-Clerk A robotic law clerk.	The Tactful Saboteur	Herbert	1964
Courtarena A combination of a court of law, and an arena of combat, in which every participant could be called out and executed under legal circumstances.	The Tactful Saboteur	Herbert	1964
Crackers Bouncing, explosive mines.	The Time Mercenaries	High	1968
Crash Balloons Inflatable bags that would both cushion and hold a flycycle driver in the event of a crash.	Ringworld	Niven	1970
Crash Web A simple mechanical linkage to activate a crash field.	Crashlander	Niven	1994
Crechepod A small, enclosed medical device providing full life support as well as advanced regrowth technologies.	The Godmakers	Herbert	1972
Credibility Rating How believable are your blog posts? your emails? your tweets?	Earth	Brin	1990
Credit A basic unit of currency.	The Mightiest Machine	Campbell	1934
Credit Card A simple card that is used in place of money	Looking Backward	Bellamy	1888
Credit Wake The electronic trail of our transactions across the Net.	Hyperion	Simmons	1989
Creditor Jet-Balloon A small, hovering device that hounds debtors.	Lies, Inc.	Dick	1964
Crimestop The faculty of stopping short, as though by instict, at the threshold of any dangerous thought.	1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)	Orwell	1948
Crop Algae Growing algae in tanks as a source of basic food stock.	Cities in Flight	Blish	1957
Crosswell Tape Worm Device that allows you to eat without gaining weight.	Super-Toys Last All Summer Long	Aldiss	1969
Crowdcutter A device worn to part crowds.	Infomocracy	Older	2016
Cryocapsule A spaceship capsule that contains astronauts in special coffins, in suspended animation.	The Computer Connection	Bester	1974
Cryonaut An astronaut placed in cryonic sleep.	The Computer Connection	Bester	1974
Cryosleep Use of extreme cold to cause suspended animation.	Flight of Exiles	Bova	1972
Crysknife A knife blade ground from the tooth of a giant sandworm of Dune.	Dune	Herbert	1965
Crystal Corn Tiny data storage crystals.	Return from the Stars	Lem	1961
Crystal Cylinder Ship A transparent space ship in the shape of a cylinder.	The Three Suns of Ev	Sloat	1933
CTC Computer (Closed-Timeline-Curve Time-Travel) A device that used time travel to perform computations.	Exultant	Baxter	2004
Cube Being A living being comprised of linked cubes.	The Infinite Enemy	Williamson	1938
Cubic City A city contained in a single, immense building.	The Cubic City	Tucker, D.D.	1929
Cubics Small, square animals that can combine to create a larger entity.	The Face of the Deep	Hamilton	1942
Culture Tank Germs that eat garbage and produce oil.	Needle	Clement	1950
Curtain (Force Barrier) An easily set-up protective force barrier.	Venus Mines, Incorporated	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Cushion Fence Gentle force field	The Computer Connection	Bester	1974
Cutoff Switch A means of instantaneously switching off an artificial intelligence.	2010: Odyssey Two	Clarke	1982
Cutteray A laser used in a range of tools - including mining equipment.	Dune	Herbert	1965
Cybercab An autonomous taxi.	Vacuum Flowers	Swanwick	1987
Cyberethics Philosophy detailing how computers work within human communities.	Alpha Centauri	Meier	1999
Cybernetic Water Witch A job that involves a lot of surfing for patterns in information.	Idoru	Gibson	1996
Cyberspace A computer technology that allowed people to see a computer network as an internal experience.	Burning Chrome	Gibson	1982
Cyborg A cybernetic organism - man in union with machine	Cyborg	Caidin	1972
Cyborg Collar A device worn around the neck that controls the person for the duration of a working day.	A Specter is Haunting Texas	Leiber	1968
Cyborg Dolphin (Jones) A heavily modified war surplus dolphin.	Johnny Mnemonic	Gibson	1981
Cyborg Pilot A combination of a human being (at least the thinking part) and a machine.	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress	Heinlein	1966
Cybrid An organic body used by an artificial intelligence.	Hyperion	Simmons	1989
Cyclotronic Ore-Hurler Using the magnetic properties of an asteroid to send ore hurling across space!	Exit From Asteroid 60	James	1940
Cylinder Space Suit A mostly rigid, cylindrical space suit.	Islands in the Sky	Clarke	1952

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