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"In 1970 I found little difficulty staying 30 years ahead of the man in the street, and now I find it difficult to stay 18 months ahead of the man on the street."
- Vernor Vinge
 |
| Space Boots (Cat Feet) | ||
| Special footgear for spacemen. |
| ...Presently a package slid down a chute and plunked down in front of him. It contained an undergarment, a blue coverall, a pair of soft boots, all in his size. The blue uniform he viewed as a makeshift, since he was anxious to swap it for the equally plain, but oyster white, uniform of a cadet. The shoes delighted him. He zipped them on, relishing their softness and glovelike fit. It seemed as if he could stand on a coin and call it, heads or tails. "Cat feet"-his first space boots! He took a few steps, trying to walk like the cadet he had seen earlier. |
| From Space Cadet,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Scribner's Sons in 1948 Additional resources -
|
Compare to magnetized boots from Manly Wade Wellman's 1941 story Lost Rocket, the magnetic shoes from Murray Leinster's 1953 novel Space Tug and the grip shoes from the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
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SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
