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Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in The Houses of Iszm
by Jack Vance

Splendid novel by Vance is both a mystery story and an introduction to an unforgettable world. Iszm, a planet in the Xi Aurigae system, offers amazing houses that consist of living trees with attached pods for living space.

('The Houses of Iszm' by Jack Vance)

The Iszic guard constantly against the possibility that an offworlder would steal a female plant - one that could provide millions of tree-seeds, breaking their monopoly. Very accessible example of Jack Vance, one of sf's great stylists, in perfect form.

Science fiction in the News articles describe real-world events that relate to the ideas and inventions in sf novels and movies. Select a news article:

Fab Tree Hab And The Houses Of Iszm
   Imagine a society in which living tree structures were used instead of dead lumber; Jack Vance has done it, and so have MIT grads.

TREETENTS And House Trees
   Interesting realization of the pod-like dwellings described generations ago by Jack Vance.

VeriChip Chairman Proposes RFID Chips For Immigrants
   Looks like VeriChip is looking to expand its market; what works for cattle should work for guest workers, apparently.

VeriMed Implanted RFID Dogtags Studied By Military, VeriChip
   Not a pleasant story, but this science-fictional possibility is being studied by the US military.

Urban Cactus Architecture
   This unusual building calls other science-fictional buildings to mind.

Grow Your Own Furniture
   Christopher Castle has a uniquely green solution to creating furniture the all-natural way.

DAVID Freeware Laser Range Scanning
   Excellent software package solves problems that only science fiction authors attempted a generation ago.

NextEngine 3D Scanner Captures Your World
   This device provides excellent three-dimensional CAD files when presented with small objects.

Treepee Crude By Iszic Standards
   Your chances for elegant living in trees are better, now, with the introduction of the Treepee.

Terminator Seeds Deployed To Iraq
   Order 81 provides the authority to require Iraqi farmers to use genetically altered seeds that do not produce naturally viable offspring.

RealView 3D Scanner - For Your Desk
   This handy little desktop wonder can bring at least the external details of any object (that fits) right in to the digital world.

Yellow Treehouse Cafe - A Tree House Restaurant
   Made for a TV ad, this functioning treehouse restaurant would please the Iszic, perhaps.

Pooktre Living Garden Chair
   Why not just grow your furniture? Forget all that tedious sawing and polishing.

Human-Injectable Satellite Tracking Chip
   Unfortunately, someone has tried to patent a fifty year-old idea of Jack Vance's; we could all live without it, even as Vance's character would have preferred in the novel.

AMOLED E-Passport W/Rotating Mugshot
   This active matrix organic light emitting diode is no mere digital hokey-pokey; it's a three-dimensional driver's license photo, or (as Jack Vance might call it) a tri-type record.

Arena Salix Pavillion Willow Architecture
   Graceful structures made of materials that mock our ability to create self-healing coatings or concrete.

'Tofu' Chair Inspired By Plant Cells
   Reveal the plant cell-inspired chair within the carved block of 'tofu. This design won the red dot design award in Singapore this year.

Gold Nanoparticles To Make Trees Into Street Lights?
   What would a forest of luminous trees look like?

Baubotanik - Construction Botany - Builds Bridges
   'A dwelling must be all of a unit—the walls, the drainage, the decor grown in!' - Jack Vance, 1954.

Living Bridges Grown From Trees
   Some are one hundred feet in length, and support up to fifty people at a time.

World's First 3D Printing 'Photo Booth'
   'On the counter-top appeared a three-dimensional replica of Farr.'- Jack Vance, 1954.

QuickScann3D Has Your Full Body Duplicate
   '... In a glass dome a three-dimensional simulacrum of himself six inches high took form.'- Jack Vance, 1954.

Living Root Bridges Of India
   Grow your own infrastructure and housing using ecologically sound materials.

The Living Tree House
   'There were trees comprised of a central columnar trunk and four vast leaves...'- Jack Vance, 1954.

Mini Statues Of You From 3D Images
   '...A three-dimensional simulacrum of himself six inches high took form.'- Jack Vance, 1954.

MIT 3D Scanner - 1000x Improvement?
   '... Feeler-planes brushed down...' - Jack Vance, 1954.

Scanify 3D Scanner For You!
   '... Feeler-planes brushed down...' - Jack Vance, 1954.

Chinese Steal American Seeds From Our Fields
   'The Iszic maintain a jealously guarded monopoly...'

Elon Musk's Traffic Tunnel Challenge Is Boring
   'The car vibrated... threading the maze of local tubes.' - Jack Vance, 1954.

Carver EV Single Person Microcar Leans In
   'Farr paid his fare, summoned a one-man car...' - Jack Vance, 1954.

Atomic Force Microscopy Works On Living Cells
   'He stood rigid as feeler-planes brushed down his body.' - Jack Vance, 1954.

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