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"None of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Preserving Machine | ||
| A device that would create a unique animal from a piece of classical music. |
Doctor Labyrinth despaired of the fate of the world and its music; what would be the best way to make sure that great classical music could survive the end of the world?
If only a Machine could be built, a Machine to process musical scores into living forms.
| ...Doc Labyrinth was no mechanic. He made a few tentative sketches and sent them hopefully around to the research laboratories. Most of them were too busy with war contracts, of course. But at last he found the people he wanted...
Weeks passed. The Machine was coming along fine; in fact it was almost finished. They had given it a trial run, feeding a couple of popular songs into it. The results? Two small mouse-like animals had come scampering out... |
| Technovelgy from The Preserving Machine,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Mercury Publications in 1953 Additional resources -
|
The Mozart G-Minor Quintet came out as a bird "slow and slender with the flowing plumage of a peacock."
Compare to the living book from The World Below (1928) by Sydney Fowler Wright.
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Tech news articles related to The Preserving Machine
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Preserving Machine-related
news articles:
- Implanted Memories Provide Songs To Birds
| Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species |
| Let's Make Slaver Sunflowers! Engineering Plants To Reflect Light |
| Machete-Wielding Philodendron Isn't Going To Take It Anymore |
| Tsunami Forecasts Improved By Ionosphere Signals |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
