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"People are choosing to allow television and Electronic Arts to do all their imagining for them."
- Peter Watts
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| JAL Shuttle | ||
| Shuttle capable of attaining low earth orbit. |
When this novel was written, I think that many people believed that this technology was relatively close. However, while passenger jets that attain these speeds are in development, it's also true that the fastest civilian airliner, the Concorde, was retired from active use this year.
However, in the future Earth of Neuromancer, just hop on board a Japan Air Lines shuttle. Nothing to worry about; they monitor your vital signs just as a matter of procedure.
| "You've been up, haven't you?" Molly asked, as he squirmed his way back into the deep temperfoam couch on the JAL shuttle. "Nah. Never travel much, just for biz." The steward was attaching readout trodes to his wrist and left ear. He closed his eyes and told himself the shuttle was only a big airplane, one that flew very high. it smelled like and airplane, like new clothes and chewing gum and exhaustion. He listened to the piped koto music and waited. Twenty minutes, then gravity came down on him like a great soft hand with bones of ancient stone. |
| Technovelgy from Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
So what do you need to get to LEO? A hardy sort of vehicle (able to deal with the heat of re-entry as well as the cold of space) and something that will push it to a velocity of about 7,800 meters per second tangent to the curve of the earth. For a great technical description, see Getting to Low Earth Orbit.
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"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
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