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
"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
 |
| Sandsnork | ||
| A device like a snorkel that would provide air to a tent buried by a sand storm. |
The planet Arrakis (or Dune) was covered almost entirely by sand. The Arrakeen natives who were brought as prisoners to this world learned to adapt to Coriolis storms where sand was hurled against objects at hundreds of kilometers per hour. One way to survive such a storm was to pitch a stilltent in a sheltered place, then ride it out. But how do you get air when your tent is covered by a meter of wind-blown sand?
| His mind focused on the storm as he had seen it begin through the transparent end of their stilltent - cold dribbles of sand crossing the basin, then runnels and tails furrowing the sky. He had looked up to a rock spire, seen it change shape under the blast, becoming a low, cheddar-colored wedge. Sand funneled into their basin had shadowed the sky with dull curry, then blotted out all light as the tent was covered. Tent bows had creaked once as they accepted the pressure, then - silence broken only by the dim bellows wheezing of their sand snorkel pumping air from the surface. |
| From Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
This device (and the words used to describe it) show more of Herbert's artistry as he gets you to think of Dune, a planet with almost no free water, as being more like a planet covered by a vast ocean - of sand. The mental concept of an ocean is more like Herbert's concept of Dune as an environment that is constantly changing - wracked by huge storms, churned by enormous sandworms. And the social climate - the Fremen culture that had gone unchanged for generations - is changing faster.
And, for the record, the peculiar word snorkel is derived from the German word schnorchel referring to a vague resemblance to the shape of the nose. And people have been snorkeling (breathing underwater with the aid of a tube) since at least the time of the ancient Greeks.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Dune
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Dune
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
| Smellicopter Combines Live Moth Antenna With Mechanical Drone |
| DARPA's Virtual Caves Explored By Virtual Robots |
| Samsung Gets Transparent Smartphone Patent |
| Jet-Powered Flying Suits Tested By Navy |
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.
|
'...just a steady velvety whirr as the taxi sped along.'
'..a wide sheet of clear material suddenly flared with light and swirling colour.'
"I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men...'
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power...'
Okay, sf fans. If you could have some art created from a science fiction sentence, what sentence would you pick?
'There were the cleaners, with large padded feet, who were apparently polishing their way the whole length...'
It's fascinating to me how the Apollo program forced people to think outside their usual boxes.
'Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures, like excavators or centipedes.'
'the hair-fine wire going deep into Owen's brain, down into the pleasure center.'
