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"I think we're still on that topic, still trying to figure out what computers are, how they change us, why we use them."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Ultron Wire | ||
| Invisible metal makes the thinnest, strongest wire. |
| At our signal, Gibbons exhausted the air in the compartment, pumping it into the body of the ship, and as the little signal light flashed, Wilma threw open the hatch. Setting the ultron wire reel, I climbed through, and began to slide down gently. We all had our belts on, of course, adjusted to a weight balance of but a few ounces. And the five-mile reel of ultron wire that was to be our guide was of gossamer fineness, though, anyway, I believe it would have lifted the full weight of the five of us, so strong and tough was this invisible metal. As an extra precaution, since the wire was of the purest metal, and therefore totally invisible, even in daylight, we all had our belts hooked on small rings that slid down the wire. |
| Technovelgy from Armageddon: 2419 A.D.,
by Philip Frances Nowlan. Published by Amazing Stories in 1928 Additional resources -
|
It could also conduct a signal and current.
As soon as Gibbons had our word, he extinguished the knob light, and
the knob, as well as the wire, became totally invisible. At our
ultrophoned word, he would light it again...
Compare to shadow square wire from Ringworld (1970), by Larry Niven.
We came out in the open without any further mishap and I instructed
Gibbons in the ship to light the knob on the end of the ultron wire.
It flashed dully a few feet away from us. Just how he had maneuvered
the ship to keep our end of the line in position, without its swinging
in a tremendous arc, I have never been able to understand...
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
