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"In my mind I have gone all over the universe, which may make it less important for me to make piddling little trips... I did enjoy seeing Stonehenge. It looked exactly the way I thought it would look."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Artificially Pulsating Star | ||
| A star that has been modified to pulsate with a message to the entire universe. |
| Brains flashed out his lighted message across the
moving tape. The electronic genius had done its job, not only cracking the code of the pulsating star, but
ferreting out the language behind it, and then translating those words into our language.
Darby's face held pride. And perhaps the hum of the machine, too, was triumphant at its nameless feat. And at last the answer was there, before their eyes, the message from M-81. "Warning to all galaxies. Danger awaits to strike you, as it has struck us. But before we were wiped out, we sent this message. "We caused one star to fluctuate like a variable, by means of subatomic force-fields that serve as curtains around the star. We installed the controlling unit on a planet of that star, set to continue flashing its signals long after we were gone. "A synchronized tape message automatically controls the unit, making the star flash bright and dim according to a universal code built from pure mathematical fundamentals. Intelligent beings with astronomical science would note the variable star that obeyed no known laws, and soon realize that it conveyed a warning. " |
| Technovelgy from The Cosmic Blinker,
by Eando Binder. Published by Science Fiction Plus in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Compare with the slightly earlier hyperspace beacon from The Repairman (1959) by Harry Harrison and the space beacon from Troubled Star (1952) by George O. Smith.
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'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
