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"...science fiction is sort of like a sociological genome. It's a huge range of possible futures, most of them useless; some vital. You never really know in advance."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Self-Igniter | ||
| A self-lighting cigarette. |
| Blantham stepped into the room, flung
back his cape.
“Thank you,” he said. He seated himself on the edge of a chair, extended a case. "Cigarette ?” “Thank you.” Magnus Ridolph gravely helped himself. He inhaled, frowned, took the cigarette from his lips, examined it. “Excuse me,” said Blantham, producing a lighter. “I sometimes forget. I never smoke self-igniters ; I can detect the flavor of the chemical instantly, and it annoys me.” “Unfortunate,” said Magnus Ridolph, after his cigarette was aglow. “My senses are not so precisely adjusted, and I find them extremely convenient. Now, what, can I do for you?” |
| Technovelgy from The Howling Bounders,
by Jack Vance. Published by Startling Stories in 1949 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the self-lighting cigarette from Methuselah's Children (1941) by Robert Heinlein.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
