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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
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| House-of-Cards Construction | ||
| Architectural technique that uses computers to help buildings maintain their balance during earthquakes. |
Vinge tantalizes us with a glimpse at a future construction technique.
| Juan liked to sit by the outer wall, especially when the classroom was on the third floor. You could feel the wall sway gently back and forth as the building kept its balance. That sort of thing made his ma real nervous. "One second of system failure and everything will fall apart!" she had complained at a PTA meeting. On the other hand, house-of-cards construction was cheap - and it could handle a big earthquake almost as easily as it did the morning breeze. |
| Technovelgy from Rainbows End,
by Vernor Vinge. Published by Tor in 2006 Additional resources -
|
The implication is that a building of this kind is really like a self-balancing robot. Although most tall buildings today are built to flex with stresses like wind and mild earth tremors, as far as I know this is just an idea.
One technique that appears to be in current use is called the "isolated base" technology. This uses a flexible support placed between the foundation and the structure itself; it counteracts the motion of seismic waves. As the earthquake moves the foundation one way, the support moves the other way, and the building stays almost stationary.
I can't find anything on this kind of technique in actual use, but maybe a student of architecture or engineering could chime in.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Rainbows End
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and Technology by Vernor Vinge
Tech news articles related to Rainbows End
Tech news articles related to works by Vernor Vinge
House-of-Cards Construction-related
news articles:
- Building Shaker Quake Machine
- Flexible Building Survives Test Quakes
| Special Lights For Driverless Cars! |
| 'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars' |
| Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics |
| You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic... |
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'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
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'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'The Dillard people had performed a miracle and put all the works in a girl-modeled case.'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
