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"The thing that I'm most interested in at the moment is the so-called Infinite Energy solution - the possibility of finding new ways of tapping into virtually limitless sources of energy."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Flame Disintegrator | ||
| Ravening flames from a hand-held device. |
| The Martian legions policed the spaceways ; their flame disintegrators were efficient deterrents to malcontents from Mercury to the asteroids. |
| Technovelgy from The Eternal Wanderer,
by Nat Schachner. Published by 1936 in Astounding Additional resources -
|
See the flame disintegrator in use against a living being:
Before the horrified gaze of the onlookers, a torso with uplifted hand, cleanly dissociated, wabbled in mid-air, and fell with a splintering crash to the smooth, stony floor. Two legs, unconnected, solitary, jerked forward with acquired momentum, to slide to a grisly, toppling fall ten rods farther.
A flame seared out from a Martian gun. It leaped across the intervening space, contacted the plunging Mer- cutian. It caught him square in the middle. Even as his fist was raised to batter at the unprotected head of the Martian leader, there was a crackle, a hiss, and — there was nothingness. Molecules, atoms, electrons, protons — of flesh, of bone, of tissue — had disintegrated into primal, inchoate, invisible stuff.
(Flame disintegrator from 'The Eternal Wanderer')
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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.'
