Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I've been very obsessive about writing science fiction for far too many years. Anyone with an ounce of sense would have given up years ago."
- Charles Stross
 |
| King's Free Park | ||
| A park in which anarchy reigned; a very long, narrow park. |
Science fiction writers do more, much more, than merely examining problems of the present. They also help to solve problems we don't even have yet.
| The modern transportation systems cleaned the air and made traffic jams archaic and left the nation with an embarrassing problem. What to do with ten thousand miles of unsightly abandoned freeways? King's Free Park had been part of the San Diego Freeway, the section between Sunset and the Santa Monica interchange. Decades ago the concrete had been covered with topsoil. The borders had been landscaped from the start. Within King's Free Park was an orderly approximation of anarchy. |
| From Cloak of Anarchy,
by Larry Niven. Published by Analog in 1972 Additional resources -
|
People who come to this country from Europe, where land is at a premium, are stunned at the amount of land occupied by our modern highway system. Niven takes a reasonable premise and runs with it in the story.
This solution works with today's version of the "trench" freeway, as well as the freeways that wind through the countryside. However, you probably wouldn't get a very anarchic or liberating feeling in a park made from the first "trench" freeway - the Davison freeway in Detroit, Michigan. Imagine a four lane divided highway squeezed (barely) into a tunnel. Now take just the roof off; that's the Davison freeway.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Cloak of Anarchy
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to Cloak of Anarchy
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
King's Free Park-related
news articles:
- Rebuild Highways - Or Think Differently
- Niven's King's Free Park - In Toronto
| 3D Printed Dubai Building Is World's Largest |
| Driverless Hotel Rooms Predicted In 1828 |
| Humans Could Take Up A LOT Less Space |
| Oh Yes, We're Building The Rotating Tower In Dubai |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Toran resigned himself to days of careful plotting between Jumps.'
'Most of the stuff written about Bats' Cave gives a wrong impression.'
'The tiger stripes on Jim's mask... made the young people easy to identify.'
I have no mouth and I must scream.
'If he sent out two or three of the small tele-operated devices... [he] could see machinery and construction details in real time from both above and below.'
'THEY sent A SLAMHOUND on Turner's trail in New Delhi...'
'...the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little cases of glass.'
'A man could carry AIs or complete planetary dataspheres in a Schrön loop.'
