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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Vision Plate | ||
| A flat panel monitor. |
This is a variant on the word visiplate.
| KARDEL Palur came into the control-tower of Space Ship Number One as the Spatial Exploratory Expedition was about to sail. He made his way to the side of the commander, who was seated before his controlboard, and bowing, handed him a sheaf of papers.
"The other vessels report everything ready, sir," he said. “Here are the photo-records of their reports.” Malben Robar, Expeditionary Commander, glanced at the papers. “Fine, Kardel Palur,” he replied. “Wait, stay here; I may want to send a message. And in the meanwhile, Kardel, do we need to be so formal?” “I suppose not, Malben, but after all, this is a disciplinary organization.”“But you rank next to me, and besides, we have been friends too long to speak to each other by titles. Can you stay here with me until after we start? You’re not needed in the communication room, are you?” “No, I’m not on duty now. I only came in here to watch. The photo-records could have been made right here at your own vision-plate, you know. I’m curious about the workings of this ship. ”Malben laughed. “All right. I wanted company, and I would as soon talk to you as anyone on Iona.” He turned to the control-board, a large slate slab set with an array of switch-levers and push- buttons of various kinds surmounted by several vision-plates and phono-discs, with a microphone and vision pick-up in the center. By pushing a lever, he brought the vision-plates to life. “Give me the rest of the fleet on plates one, two and three,” he instructed the communications operator whose features were mirrored in the viewing discs. As the operator made his connections, the vision-plates lighted up, each showing the interior of one of the other three craft which comprised the Expedition. |
| Technovelgy from When the Moons Met,
by Clyde F. Beck. Published by Wonder Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Murray Leinster used the same expression in his famous 1945 short story First Contact:
The skipper studied the [stereophotos] of Tommy's taking, and put them aside. He went back to his uneasy contemplation of the vision plates ahead.
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'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
