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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 |
| Laboratory Planet A toy planet created in a laboratory; a fully functional world in miniature. |
The Pygmy Planet | Williamson | 1932 |
| Lado-Acheson System A device for "pumping in" sunlight into an enclosed space habitat. |
Neuromancer | Gibson | 1984 |
| Laminated Mouse Brain Computer A computing device that makes use of neurons from a mouse. |
Think Blue, Count Two | Smith | 1962 |
| Landing Arms Arms that poke out from a space craft to allow it to land on solid ground, in gravity. |
Creatures of the Comet | Hamilton | 1931 |
| Landing Legs Projections from the base of a space craft that allow it to land upright in gravity. |
No Planet Is Safe | Ellison | 1958 |
| Landing on an Asteroid An elaborate flight plan for landing a space ship on an asteroid. |
Murder on the Asteroid | Binder | 1933 |
| Landing on the Moon Men from the earth land on the Moon. |
Somnium (The Dream) | Kepler | 1634 |
| Landing Pit (Drydock and Construction) A cylindrical hole with anti-gravity screens for use in spacecraft landings and repair. |
The Stars My Destination | Bester | 1956 |
| Landing Stage Parking spot for space craft. |
Atomic Fire | Gallun | 1931 |
| Landing-Cradle A supporting structure for a space craft landing on a planetary surface. |
The Radium World | Kelly | 1932 |
| Landing-Grid A constructed landing area on a planetary surface for space craft. |
Sand Doom | Leinster | 1955 |
| Landspeeder A small repulsion-based hovercraft capable of high speeds over flat terrain. |
Star Wars | Lucas | 1976 |
| Langston Field A protective energy shield. |
The Mote in God's Eye | Niven (w/J. Pournelle) | 1974 |
| Language Rectifier The first reference to machine-translation of human languages. |
Ralph 124c 41 + | Gernsback | 1911 |
| Lanson Screen An elliptical shield of force large enough to enclose a city. |
The Lanson Screen | Zagat | 1936 |
| Laputa A floating island or rock in the air. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift | 1726 |
| Laser Cannon A laser source powerful enough to provide significant light pressure to a "light sail." |
Neutron Star | Niven | 1966 |
| Laser Finger Special powered suit add-on makes you even quicker on the draw. |
The Forever War | Haldeman | 1974 |
| Laser Rifle A laser weapon shaped (and fired) like a traditional rifle. |
Door to Anywhere | Anderson | 1966 |
| Laser-Induced Plasma Shoots lightning from your fingertips. |
Daemon | Suarez | 2006 |
| Lasgun A continuous-wave laser projector; can be used as a weapon or as a cutting tool. |
Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Lash-Tube Device emits an energy beam. |
The Golden Man | Dick | 1954 |
| Launch Shock Astronauts need protection from the shock of being launched into space. |
Somnium (The Dream) | Kepler | 1634 |
| Launching Cradle A place for a spherical space craft to sit in gravity. |
Needler | Garrett | 1957 |
| Launching Facility A specific spot with support for a space launch. |
From the Earth to the Moon | Verne | 1867 |
| Launching Laser A set of very high-powered lasers used to power spacecraft. |
The Fourth Profession | Niven | 1971 |
| Law Clerk Robot A robotic lawyer. |
The Midas Plague | Pohl | 1954 |
| Law Expert System (LEX) Software capable of rendering a legal opinion. |
The Moat | Egan | 1991 |
| Law of Contact Non-interference in the development of other worlds. |
Orphans of the Void | Shaara | 1952 |
| Laws Against Human Drivers The idea that autonomous vehicles should be the only cars on the road, for safety. |
Photo Control | Brown | 1934 |
| Lawyer Program Software that could listen to legal argument. |
Earth | Brin | 1990 |
| Lead-Bodied Android A robot designed for use in the nuclear industry. |
Robots of the World! Arise! | Wolf | 1952 |
| Leading Machine An exploratory device; it takes the form of an autonomous motorcycle. |
Paradise and Iron | Breuer | 1930 |
| Leady A radiation-resistant robot. |
The Defenders | Dick | 1953 |
| Leaf Screens Bioform displays grown from plants offering flat surfaces - like leaves. |
Sparrowhawk | Easton | 1990 |
| Leak Disk Simple device to temporarily close a leak in a spacecraft. |
Islands in the Sky | Clarke | 1952 |
| Learning Robot A robot that learns from its own experiences. |
Callahan and the Wheelies | Barr | 1960 |
| Learning-Cap A special metal helmet for electro-education. |
The Knowledge Machine | Hamilton | 1948 |
| Lecton A device that would read aloud an electronic text book. |
Return from the Stars | Lem | 1961 |
| Legislation Analyzer Device analyzes potentially biased bills. |
The Trouble With Bubbles | Dick | 1953 |
| Lens Image A presentation of the night sky, calculated for any planet or point in space. |
Second Foundation | Asimov | 1953 |
| Lens-Tube A kind of seeing device like a short-range telescope. |
The Doom From Planet 4 | Williamson | 1931 |
| Lethe-Mirror Induces sleepy mindedness. |
The World Jones Made | Dick | 1956 |
| Levitating Path Anti-gravity metal used to make a floating walkway. |
A Sound of Thunder | Bradbury | 1952 |
| Levitator Pack Handy anti-gravity when you need it. |
Gears for Nemesis | Gallun | 1942 |
| Levitators Allows free flight in the interior volume of a vast sphere in space. |
Lost City of Mars | Vincent | 1934 |
| Lewiston Standard blaster pistol with terrifying power. |
Triplanetary | Smith | 1934 |
| Leybyrdite Extremely tough crystalline metal. |
Subspace Explorers | Smith | 1965 |
| Leyden Ball Device for hunting underwater; transfers a powerful electrical charge to the prey. |
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Verne | 1875 |
| Librareome Project Blasting libraries into bits to create a library of perfect digitized electronic books. |
Rainbows End | Vinge | 2006 |
| Life Bank A storage facility with the genetic material that was produced by Earth's ecosystem. |
The Ophiuchi Hotline | Varley | 1977 |
| Life Blanket Sentient moss which, when draped over the shoulders of a human being, becomes fully self-aware, providing valuable services. |
Ogre | Simak | 1944 |
| Life Chamber A machine-mediated, fully immersive experiential environment. |
The Chamber of Life | Wertenbaker | 1929 |
| Life Detector A device that was capable of detecting living tissue within a set radius. |
Cease Fire | Herbert | 1958 |
| Life Detector Shield An electronic field that is intended to shield living tissue from a Life Detector. |
Cease Fire | Herbert | 1958 |
| Life Phial Similar to a food pill, food in concentrated form. |
Improvements So Extraordinary The World Will Shudder | Lease | 1893 |
| Life Recorder Record the details of your life. |
The Dream Master (He Who Shapes) | Zelazny | 1966 |
| Life Tubes Escape pods for space ships. |
Liners of Space | Vanny | 1930 |
| Lifeboat A small space-worthy craft that can be jettisoned from a larger ship, to save its crew. |
Spacehounds of IPC | Smith | 1931 |
| Lifebox A device that captures a person's life experience in software. |
Soft Death | Rucker | 1986 |
| Life-Brew A non-alcoholic beverage, but similar to wine. |
In the Deep of Time | Lathrop | 1897 |
| Lifelog A life record made constantly. |
Halting State | Stross | 2007 |
| Life-shield Blanket A device that is capable of shielding the person using it against ordinary forms of detecting living beings. |
Heretics of Dune | Herbert | 1984 |
| Life-Ship An emergency escape or survival craft. |
The Invisible World | Repp | 1940 |
| Lifezone An enclosed biosphere; a pod-like greenhouse attached to a space-going vessel. |
Tides of Light | Benford | 1989 |
| Lift Chair A single occupant lifted by great birds. |
The Last Castle | Vance | 1967 |
| Light Absorbing/Emitting Ink Ink that can absorb light and then emit it in a burst for advertising purposes. |
Gravy Planet | Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth) | 1952 |
| Light Beam Propulsion (Light-Ship) Use of brilliant light as motive power for a space ship. |
The Radium World | Kelly | 1932 |
| Light Pressure Propulsion First mention of the idea that light itself could be a form of propulsion for spacecraft. |
From the Earth to the Moon | Verne | 1867 |
| Light Speed Using the speed of light at a unit of velocity. |
Out Around Rigel | Wilson | 1931 |
| Light Traps (Dyson Sphere) Surrounding a sun, a set of devices to capture or focus solar power. |
Star Maker | Stapledon | 1937 |
| Light-Absorbing Paint Space stealth! |
Earthlight | Clarke | 1955 |
| Lighting Panel A large panel that presents illumination without heat. |
Let There Be Light | Monroe | 1940 |
| Lightsaber A sword the blade of which is formed by a beam of visible light which cuts like a laser. |
Star Wars | Lucas | 1976 |
| Light-Sail Ship A spacecraft that used a huge sail moved by light pressure. |
Think Blue, Count Two | Smith | 1962 |
| Light-Sculpture A creative work that was both sculpture and light. |
Light Verse | Asimov | 1973 |
| Light-Sword A laser tuned for use as a cutting tool. |
Ringworld | Niven | 1970 |
| Lightweight Vacuum Armor A simplified space suit, used where conditions were similar to Earth rather than in the more rigorous conditions of space. |
Hotel Cosmos | Gallun | 1938 |
| Liquid Metal Metal that can be sprayed on. |
The Dual World | Barnes | 1938 |
| Liquid Mirror Telescope on Mars A large telescope using a spinning bowl of mercury as the mirror. |
Old Faithful | Gallun | 1934 |
| Lithocule Tiny intelligent building blocks. |
The Diamond Age | Stephenson | 1995 |
| Little Bird A remote-control "eye-in-the-sky" miniature drone plane (UAV). |
Darwin's Children | Bear | 2003 |
| Live Carpet A carpet made of living fibers; the backing is a digestive system. |
Queen of Angels | Bear | 1990 |
| Live Memo A paper memo or short letter that reads itself and can even argue with or exhort its reader. |
The Simulacra | Dick | 1964 |
| Live News The modern concept of a news broadcast. |
In the Year 2889 | Verne | 1889 |
| Living Advertising Character Modifying an ordinary person to create a living likeness of a company's brand symbol or character. |
The Stars My Destination | Bester | 1956 |
| Living Book A small creature that is used to contain and play back information. |
The World Below | Wright | Collins So |
| Living Grass Carpet An indoor area covered with grass, in the manner of a carpet. |
Stranger in a Strange Land | Heinlein | 1961 |
| Living Machines Robots that are able to learn. |
The Mentanicals | Flagg | 1934 |
| Living Metal Cubes Tiny metal cubes and pyramids that work together to create larger shapes. |
The Metal Monster | Merritt | 1920 |
| Living Space Ship A space ship made of a living substance, in this case cellulose. |
Proxima Centauri | Leinster | 1935 |
| Lobster AI Scan a lobster brain, get a learning machine. |
Accelerando | Stross | 2005 |
| Local Time Clock A clock for use in airships that always indicates the time for the place they are flying over. |
The Silent Destroyer | Juve | 1929 |
| Localizer Devices that work together to form ad-hoc networks. |
A Deepness in the Sky | Vinge | 1999 |
| Locatimeter A method for a plane to know its location over the Earth. |
The Iron World | Kline | 1937 |
| Logical Pathogen Malware concealed in DNA. |
The Medusa Chronicles | Reynolds (w/S. Baxter) | 2016 |
| Logics Machines that let you request information, and then display it for you on a screen. |
A Logic Named Joe | Leinster | 1946 |
| Logics Service A networked service that retains all of your personal information, schedules and phone messages online. |
A Logic Named Joe | Leinster | 1946 |
| Loiter-Drone A autonomous flying device that hovers protectively over a defined area. |
The Algebraist | Banks | 2004 |
| Loitering Micro-Missile A small missile that does not need line-of-sight and can move at a slow pace until it finds its target. |
Invader on My Back | High | 1968 |
| Loogie Gun A non-violent weapon that shoots a gooey mass to immobilize a person judged to have criminal or violent intent. |
Snow Crash | Stephenson | 1992 |
| Low-Gravity Velodrome A bicycle track in an orbital resort. |
Neuromancer | Gibson | 1984 |
| Low-scale Detectors Magnifies even the smallest sound. |
Brigands of the Moon | Cummings | 1930 |
| Lucid Dreamer A machine that guarantees productive REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, and therefore dreams. |
Starfish | Watts | 1999 |
| Lucky Dragon ATM An automatic teller machine with attitude. |
All Tomorrow's Parties | Gibson | 1999 |
| Luggage A trunk made from sapient pearwood. |
The Color of Magic | Pratchett | 1983 |
| Luggage Robot Perfect helper at robotic hotels. |
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge | Harrison | 1970 |
| Luminescent Vial A glass tube full of luminescent algae; used to provide some measure of light underground. |
The Dragon Masters | Vance | 1962 |
| Luminous Stake-Markers Illuminated pole designating a staked claim on the surface of a planet, moon or asteroid. |
The Radium World | Kelly | 1932 |
| Lunar Advertisement An 'ad' on the lunar surface that can be seen by its audience on Earth. |
Watch This Space | Clarke | 1957 |
| Lunar Concrete A building material using lunar dust or similar surface material as a main ingredient. |
Mona Lisa Overdrive | Gibson | 1988 |
| Lunar Disneyland A vast cavern excavated on the Moon - used for entertainment. Very large scale entertainment. |
The Phantom of Kansas | Varley | 1976 |
| Lunar Greenhouse Tunnel A multipurpose conservatory on the Moon. |
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress | Heinlein | 1966 |
| Lunar Ice Mining The practice of mining for ice on the moon. |
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress | Heinlein | 1966 |
| Lunar Mining Very early (first?) reference to mining operations on the moon. |
Brigands of the Moon | Cummings | 1930 |
| Lunar Monorail A monorail constructed above the surface of the Moon. |
Earthlight | Clarke | 1955 |
| Lunar Observatory Putting an observatory on the far side of the Moon could have advantages. |
We Have Fed Our Sea | Anderson | 1958 |
| Lunar Tunnel (Human Pendulum) A tunnel through the center of the moon, and the man who fell through it. |
Captive of the Crater | Sharp | 1933 |
| Lunar Used Spacecraft Lot A sales lot for used spacecraft |
Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Lunar Web The moon ensnared by cobwebs. |
Hothouse | Aldiss | 1962 |
| Lunocycle (Lunar Bicycle) A bicycle specially adapted for lunar travel. |
The Rolling Stones | Heinlein | 1952 |
| Lux A bar of solidified light. |
The Black Star Passes | Campbell | 1930 |
| Luxobe Crystals They give light. |
Moon Crystals | Haggard | 1936 |
| Luxvid Eyes (Jensen Wide-Angle) Artificial, unmoving implanted eyes. |
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | Dick | 1965 |
| Lyle Drive Propulsion system for use inside the solar system. |
Stranger in a Strange Land | Heinlein | 1961 |
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
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