Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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
"...the people dealing with these new technologies will still be derived from the human stock we're familiar with today."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Time Warp | ||
| Provides a kind of foothold for time travel. |
As far as I know, the first use of the phrase "time warp".
| Relativists have suggested that around the heavier stars time progresses at a slower rate, because the immense masses warp both space and time Cameron had invented neutronium with this in mind. Though the total mass of the neutronium plate was negligible, it was so highly concentrated that near it was produced an almost visible spacetime warp. Light rays passing above it were refracted because their time rate — and therefore their speed — had been changed momentarily.
Just as a body in space cannot move unless it has something to push against, so a body cannot travel in time — change its time rate — unless it has a foothold on that medium. The time warp produced by neutronium was the foothold; traveling along and against it. the Time Traveler could move forward in time! It could not travel into the post, for the neutronium plate had to exist in all the ages traveled, and it had not existed before Cameron had made it...
|
| Technovelgy from The Time Bender,
by Oliver Saari. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1937 Additional resources -
|
Here's another use of this handy phrase, in Anachronistic Optics (1938) by M. Schere:
“It’s permanent,” Dr. Meadow said in a tired voice at dawn. “Dan Murphy is in 1940, without his eyes. The machine is out of order. But my planemodulus light had some effect. They prevented the time-warp, at the last moment, from affecting that part of his body most sensitive to light — his eyes.”
I found that I was believing him. There was nothing else to do.
“Then what’s he doing?” I asked in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own.
“He is standing in the wrecked time machine, in your barn. At least I am quite sure he won’t move, for he can see nothing in 1940. I think he can see here, now.”
Compare to space warp from Redmask of the Outlands (1934) by Nat Schachner and warp-speed from Yachting Party (1952) by Fox B. Holden.
I hardly recollect what happened during that night. The doctor figured and worked and tried one thing after another. But nothing happened. The eyes stayed there, turning this way and that a little, till I could feel the fingers of skeletons crawling up and down my spine.
('Anachronistic Optics' (1938) by M. Schere)
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Time Bender
More Ideas
and Technology by Oliver Saari
Tech news articles related to The Time Bender
Tech news articles related to works by Oliver Saari
| Can Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Control The Weather? |
| Wolfram Alpha Mathematica Predicted by Science Fiction in 1948! |
| Special Lights For Driverless Cars! |
| 'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars' |
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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
