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"The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction. You look at the world around you, and take it apart into its components. Then you take some of those components, throw them away, and plug in different ones, start it up and see what happens."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Wall in the Air | ||
| An invisible barrier that protects an entire island or city. |
As far as I know, this is the earliest example of this idea in science fiction.
| They only could tell us that they had been taught from the Sun Island, a far-off land of the sea. Sometimes, they said, the tide was low and we could walk on dry rocks to the isle. Sometimes there was a “wall in the air.” Then no one could get there...
“That is the Sun Island. The angel-man lives there.”
Before the bird people slept he ordered the construction of a small, strong stone house, with two great cellars stored with fuel, food and oil. This was built as near the island as possible. The glow of brightness made continual day around it, but warmth hardly penetrated the impassable wall in the air... “This day only the wall in the air is removed. The bird people are asleep. I can take you there quickly!” |
| Technovelgy from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star,
by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné. Published by Not Known in 1887 Additional resources -
|
Compare to lanson screen from The Lanson Screen (1936) by Leo Zagat and langston field from The Mote in God's Eye (1974) by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle).
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star
More Ideas
and Technology by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné
Tech news articles related to Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star
Tech news articles related to works by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné
| Vipera Electric Skis From Frigid Dynamics |
| Pivotal Blackfly Electric Aircraft Lifts And Hovers |
| Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram |
| Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable |
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Science Fiction
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I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.'
'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
