Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"My father was a master mechanic; I grew up with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| Plasticocoon | ||
| Holds a prisoner motionless. |
| The skin-tight pulling at my joints told me it was a plasticocoon, and that I might save my strength. There was no point to struggling. |
| From The Space Merchants,
by Frederik Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth). Published by St. Martin's Press in 1952 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the use of hunting robe from Clifford Simak's remarkable 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing. I'd also mention the necap from Alan Dean Foster's 2010 novel The Human Blend and the tanglefoot field from Robert Heinlein's 1954 novel The Star Beast.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Space Merchants
More Ideas
and Technology by Frederik Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)
Tech news articles related to The Space Merchants
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)
| ZKZM-500 LASER Assault Rifle |
| Drone Assassin Fails To Kill Venezuelan President |
| Musk's Boring Flamethrower |
| Poland Starts With 1000 Warmate 'Suicide Drones' |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'A metal... light as cork and stronger than steel...'
'Ken lay full-length in the padded body compartment, his feet resting on the controlling bars of the directional planes, hands on the torpoon's engine levers.'
'... little machines, that went from plant to plant... cutting off the ripe fruit.'
'Recharge the batteries... in almost every town and village...'
'...a tiny, rocket-powered projectile, drove towards the mysterious bulk. It hit, exploding into a cloud of incandescent vapour.'
'The flycycles were miracles of compact design.'
These drones can provide situational awareness beyond visual line-of-sight capability.
'It resembled conventional human-operated transportation vehicles, but with one exception -- there was no driver's cabin.'
'Each one consists of a hub with many tiny spokes... On the end is a squat foot, rubber tread on the bottom...'
'A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled silently from the top of the unit and immediately grew rigid.'
