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"Cyberspace is a metaphor that allows us to grasp this place where since about the time of the second world war we've increasingly done so many of the things that we think of as civilization."
- William Gibson
 |
| Space-Lanes | ||
| Well-traveled routes through outer space. |
As far as I know, this is the first instance of the phrase "space-lanes".
| He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life, and now all of his time-honored rules of interplanetary navigation had been upset by this new cruiser. |
| From Crashing Suns,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Popular Fiction Publishing Co. in 1928 Additional resources -
|
Another instance can be found in the excellent 1934 short story Cosmic Teletype by Carl Jacobi. Jospeph Rane, injured during college and missing part of his brain, turned what was left to scientific pursuits. He succeeded in constructing a device able to contact inhabitants of distant worlds.
The messages were in code; but once translated, they revealed an entire civilization at war.
By the 1950's, this phrase had become a cliche. Take a look at this ironic excerpt from Philip K. Dick's short story Sales Pitch:
General emergency report. Dromeda, daughter of Calian and most beautiful woman in all Lirius was kidnapped early today by a man thought to be Tarana, son of the king of Uranus. It is believed that Tarana arrived secretly on Lirius on a space ship, traveling out of patrolled space-lanes. A council of war will be held immediately.
Commute ships roared on all sides, as Ed Morris made his way wearliy home to Earth at the end of a long hard day at the office. The Ganymede-Terra lanes were choked with exhausted, grim-faced businessmen; Jupiter was in opposition to Earth and the trip was a good two hours. Every few million miles the great flow slowed to a grinding, agonized halt; signal-lights flashed as streams from Mars and Saturn fed into the main traffic-arteries.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Crashing Suns
More Ideas
and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to Crashing Suns
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
Space-Lanes-related
news articles:
- Gravitational Corridors Like Space-Lanes
- Teen's Solar System Travel Software Wins Intel Prize
| NASA's Electric Motor Scooter |
| Extremophile Microbe Loves Space Rocks |
| Space Domes Over-rated? Science Fiction Authors Have Answers |
| NASA 'Broomstick' Recalls SciFi Ideas |
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