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"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Saddle | ||
| A comfortable riding saddle - minus the horse. |
| They were closer now and it seemed to him that they were sitting in
invisible chairs that traveled very fast. He saw that they were humanoid, to a degree at least, and there were only three of them. They came in with a rush and stopped very suddenly a hundred feet or so from where he sat upon the steps. He didn't move or say a word -- there was nothing he could say. It was too ridiculous. They were, perhaps, a little smaller than himself, and black as the ace of spades, and they wore skin-tight shorts and vests that were somewhat oversize and both the shorts and vests were the blue of April skies. But that was not the worst of it.
 (From The Big Front Yard) They sat on saddles, with horns in front and stirrups and a sort of bedroll tied on the back, but they had no horses. The saddles floated in the air, with stirrups about three feet above the ground and the aliens sat easily in the saddles and stared at him and he stared back at them. Finally he got up and moved forward a step or two and when he did that the three swung from the saddles and moved forward, too, while the saddles hung there in the air, exactly as they'd left them. |
| Technovelgy from The Big Front Yard,
by Clifford Simak. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1959 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the flycycle from Larry Niven's 1970 novel Ringworld and the Hawking mat from Hyperion (1989) by Dan Simmons.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Big Front Yard
More Ideas
and Technology by Clifford Simak
Tech news articles related to The Big Front Yard
Tech news articles related to works by Clifford Simak
Saddle-related
news articles:
- Jet-Powered Hoverboard Works!
| 'Robovan' Name Already Taken - Elon, Try These |
| Tele-Driving Offers Jobs For Tele-Drivers, Not AIs |
| GM Scraps Cruise Origin Robotaxi With No Steering Wheel |
| GoSun EV Solar Charger Drapes Onto Your Car |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
