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"To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Timepress | ||
| A device that makes time go more quickly in a limited area. |
In Millennium, people travel from the future to the past, grabbing people who will never be missed due to some sort of catastrophe. For example, if a house will burn down with no survivors, the people can be saved. However, to make sure that the timestream is undisturbed, it is necessary to replace the person with a duplicate body (called a "wimp").
| But there were scars they wanted the wimp to have. The only way to make those is with a timepress field. When everybody was ready they plugged feedlines from big nutrient tanks into the wimp, connected her ureter and anus to evacuator lines, and jumped back. The blue glow of the Gate surrounded the wimp. It began to breathe so fast the chest was a blur. Its hair and fingernails grew visibly. It used nutrient fluid so fast that it had to be pumped in, and it emitted urine in a pulsed, pressurized stream that hissed into a tank on the floor. In ten seconds it grew six months older. The scars healed normally. |
| Technovelgy from Millennium,
by John Varley. Published by Berkley Books in 1983 Additional resources -
|
Just imagine having a timepress to let you recover from a broken arm in minutes! Of course, it looks like you will also have to age three to six months...
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| Hybrid Wind Solar Devices |
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| REALLY Remote Control Excavators |
| Your Solar Electric Paint Is Ready, Larry Niven |
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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.'
