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"The permanent government now is the anchorpeople. They don't get elected, and year after year they're responding emotionally to this or that."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Lunar Web | ||
| The moon ensnared by cobwebs. |
A fascinating (and fantastic!) visualization of the long afternoon of our Earth.
| The traverser, a gross vegetable-equivalent of a spider, was descending to the Tips…
The traverser was descending slowly, a great bladder with legs and jaws, fibery hair covering most of its bulk… It was like a god, with the powers of a god. It came down on a cable, floated nimbly down the strand trailing up into the sky. As far as could be seen, cables slanted up from the jungle, pointing like slender, drooping fingers to heaven… They all trailed up in the same direction, toward a floating silver half-globe, remote and cool, but clearly visible even in the glare of eternal sunshine… Unmoving, steady, the half-moon remained always in the same sector of the sky. |
| From Hothouse,
by Brian Aldiss. Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Read the discussion about the space elevator, which has a rich history before and after the idea's treatment by sf writers.
This flight of fancy on the part of Aldiss hearkens back to the earliest stirrings of science fiction. Take a look at the entry for weightlessness and the journey of the Gansas to the moon in Francis Godwin's 1638 novel The Man in the Moone.
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'...in the midst of this fluid, which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could not go far.'
'This was to be roofed over, sealed, and an atmosphere provided...'
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed down the long aisles...'
'It drew its power from... sunpower screens on its low curved roof.'
''... major cities of Earth have free electrical power conveniently processed from their own noise.'
