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"The immediate problem with our meat brains is that they have no back-up. We can lose the most precious information we have from one bump on the head or stroke. You want a mind system with back-up that can access other databases."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Miniaturization | ||
| Making a physical object smaller in size. |
This text excerpt is from the novelization of the Film by Richard Fleischer, story by Jerome Bixby and Otto Klement, screenplay by Harry Kleiner.
| The phrase came clearly over the communication system, as Carter watched the Proteus shrink. It did so slowly at first, so that one could only tell it was happening by the change in the way it overlapped the hexagonal structures that made up the floor. Those that were partially revealed beyond the edge of the ship's structure crept outward, and eventually tiles that had earlier been completely hidden began to show. All around the Proteus, the hexagonals emerged, and the rate of miniaturization accelerated until the ship was shrinking like a patch of ice on a warm surface. Carter had watched miniaturization a hundred times, but never with quite the effect upon himself that he was experiencing now. It was as though the ship was hurling down a long, infinitely long hole; falling in absolute silence and growing smaller and smaller as the distance increased to miles, to tens of miles, to hundreds... The ship was a white beetle now, resting upon the central hexagon immediately under the miniaturizer; resting upon the one red hexagon in the world of white ones--the Zero Module. The Proteus was still falling, still shrinking, and Carter, with an effort, raised his hand. The glow of the miniaturizer faded to a dull red and miniaturization stopped. |
| Technovelgy from Fantastic Voyage (Novel),
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Bantam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
"Miniaturization" has been used in these novels: Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904), Richard Matheson's novelization of the film The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)and Richard Matheson's novelization of The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
Thanks to Connor Lawrence for contributing this item.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Fantastic Voyage (Novel)
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and Technology by Isaac Asimov
Tech news articles related to Fantastic Voyage (Novel)
Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov
Miniaturization-related
news articles:
- In Vivo Micromotors Powered By Stomach Acid
- Implosion Fabrication Shrinks 3D Objects To Nanoscale
- Who Needs Asimov's 'Proteus' When You Can Have Pangolins?
| Climate Engineering In California Could Make Europe's Heat Waves Worse |
| Textiles That Harvest Energy And Store It |
| Coin-Sized Nuclear Battery Good For 100 Years |
| The FLUTE Project - A Huge Liquid Mirror In Space |
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'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
