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"Conspiracy theories are big because they're comforting. Any conspiracy is infinitely less multiplex than the real deal, which is multiplex to the point of being unknowable."
- William Gibson
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| Beam Car | ||
| A vehicle like an elevator car, but which travels on a radio and magnetic beam, from the surface of a planet up to a satellite. |
| The interior of the projectilelike vehicle was padded thickly and was provided with oxygen apparatus. But no propelling mechanism was in evidence. Jor Therol, following them inside, closed and made airtight the door, then spoke softly as if in answer to the objections which had presented themselves in the minds of his guests. “Phobos,” he said, “is all you say —on the surface. We go not to the surface, however, but to the interior of the body, where is to be found the city of Scarta. This car in which we ride is driven through the tube by magnetic forces and thence over a beam of radio impulses to the receiving tube at Scarta. Hold fast now, my friends. We leave.”
 ('Lost City of Mars' by Harl Vincent) The car flung upward with a violence that flattened them all to the cushions. The pressure was unbearable as it accelerated to a terrific velocity. Almost instantly the small compartment became insufferable from the heat of atmospheric friction. Coler panted, tried to raise his head, but could not move it. His eyes burned in their sockets. Something snapped in his brain. |
| Technovelgy from Lost City of Mars,
by Harl Vincent. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1934 Additional resources -
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
