 |
Dictionary of Travel Terms in Science Fiction
(Technovelgy items at top: skip
down to News)
Name |
Author (Publication Date) |
Alderson Point - a wormhole to the stars One end of a tramline, a path between stars that can be traversed using a hyperdrive engine. |
Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle) (1974) |
Automatic Hotel (Hotel Hendrix) - the hotel is your host A fully automated hotel; complete services provided from check-in to check-out. |
Richard Morgan (2003) |
Autoporter - personal baggage handler A device that carries your bag for you at airports. |
John Brunner (1975) |
Canola Oil - a cob in your tank Vegetable oil refined for use as fuel |
William Gibson (1993) |
Cartograph - a GPS-like trip readout A device that shows you a record of your travels - a GPS readout. |
Jack Williamson (1936) |
Orbital Terminus - airport in orbit An airport in space; a terminal for low earth orbit flights. |
William Gibson (1986) |
Paracompass - detects local magnetic anomalies A very specialized compass that makes use of local magnetic anomalies. |
Frank Herbert (1965) |
Planck Juice - pre-quark beverage A continuous pre-quark force-medium with no distinguishing characteristics (it's mostly gluons) |
Rudy Rucker (1984) |
Sandcrawler - Jawa condo A very large mobile home, used by jawas on the deserts of Tatooine. |
George Lucas (1976) |
Spindizzy - pick up your town and go A device that made use of a relationship between electron spin, electromagnetism and gravity allowed any object to leave the Earth's surface. |
James Blish (1957) |
Time Machine - the original A device allowing the rider to move freely in the temporal dimension, just as we ordinarily do in the two physical dimensions normal to gravity. |
H.G. Wells (1895) |
Related Science Fiction in the News
Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping 'He reached to unsnap the cartograph from his belt.'- Jack Williamson, 1931. (re: Jack Williamson, 9/7/2014 ) |
Live Luggage Ready To Roll Nowadays, the airlines will probably charge extra for luggage that can move itself. (re: John Brunner, 6/24/2008 ) |
Porter 'Robots' For Baggage, If Not People Anybody who is working on an automated solution to me carrying my bags through the airport gets an A for effort from me. (re: John Brunner, 4/30/2006 ) |
Tweel - (Almost) A Smart Wheel Michelin is introducing the Tweel - a combination of wheel and tire that could offer a number of benefits to owners of wheeled vehicles. Unlike most Michelin tires sold in the past century, the Tweel is unique - it does not use air to cushion the rid (re: Neal Stephenson, 1/12/2005 ) |
Water Taxi Himiko and the Nautilus: Separated at Birth? Anime artist Leiji Matsumoto designed a 114-ton Japanese water taxi to "appeal to the younger generation." (re: Jules Verne, 3/22/2004 ) |
Paraglider To Fly From Greece to Egypt An Austrian extreme sports enthusiast hopes to take a world's record for his planned flight from Kalamata, Greece to Alexandria, Egypt. (re: Larry Niven, 12/5/2003 ) |
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