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"[Science fiction] is the one literary medium left in which we have a free hand. We can do any damn thing we please."
- Alfred Bester
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| Pseudogravity | ||
| Gravity produced by artifice, rather than by a suitably large mass. |
This term was typically used to describe the "gravity" created in a spinning orbital habitat; later, it was extended to other types of artificial gravity.
| Bobo trotted away in the long loping strides permitted by the low pseudogravity near the axis of rotation of the Ship. |
| From Common Sense,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Heinlein uses this idea again in his description of Wheelchair, the orbital home of Waldo F. Jones in the 1942 novella Waldo:
This basic problem of space travel was recognized as early as the 17th century; see the entry for weightlessness in space from The Man in the Moone (1638), by Francis Godwin.
See the entry for city of space from this same work for a more detailed discussion about artificial gravity.
For the first use of the idea see artificial gravity from Brigands of the Moon (1930) by Ray Cummings. Published the same year was the artificial gravity system from Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon. See also paragravity from Collision Orbit (1941) by Jack Williamson.
Waldo F. Jones seemed to be floating in thin air at the center of a spherical room. The appearance was caused by the fact that he was indeed floating in air. His house lay in a free orbit, with a period of just over twenty-four hours. No spin had been impressed on his home; the pseudo gravity of centrifugal force was the thing he wanted least. He had left Earth to get away from its gravitational field; he had not been down to the surface once in the seventeen years since his house was built and towed into her orbit; he never intended to do so for any purpose whatsoever.
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'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
