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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross
 |
| Stepping Discs | ||
| Open air teleportation pads. |
Teleportation technology takes many forms in science fiction. Most seem to involve scanning your constituent atoms to determine your current makeup, and then sending that information elsewhere, where you are reconstituted out of new atoms. The "old" you is destroyed in the scanning process.
This excerpt from the novel takes place on the world of the puppeteers, unusual creatures with two heads and a herd mentality. They are the most cautious sentient species known - surely if they have transportation technology, it is safe?
| At the center of the intersection was a large blue rectangle. Four blue discs surrounded the rectangle, one at the mouth of each walk. "You may step on the rectangle if you wish," said Nessus, "but you may not step on inappropriate discs. Follow me." He circled the nearest disc, crossed the intersection, trotted onto the disc on the opposite side, and vanished. |
| From Ringworld,
by Larry Niven. Published by Ballantine in 1970 Additional resources -
|
The discs are arranged in a series of platforms, so you can readily "walk" one block at a time.
Another interesting treatment of the idea of teleportation is the ability to jaunte, a kind of psychic power of telekinesis from the great fifties novel The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
Compare to the telepomp from The Man Without a Body (1877) by Edward Page Mitchell, the
displacement booth from Flash Crowd (1972) by Larry Niven and the
trip box from Eye of Cat (1982) by Roger Zelazny.
Also, see the libra-transmitter from Into the Meteorite Orbit by Frank R. Kelly, the cosmic express from The Cosmic Express by Jack Williamson, Jaunte from The Stars My Destination, the Transo from Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak and the geofractor (1939) from One Against the Legion by Jack Williamson.
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''... major cities of Earth have free electrical power conveniently processed from their own noise.'
'The appearance was enough like a giant witch's broom to justify the nickname.'
'A vast circle of scarlet stars came up into the greenish desert dusk.'
'He had constructed an organ, a brain, of metal, entirely inorganic and lifeless...'
'I shall never forget the sight... when the yellow gleam of the precious metal appeared under the star dust.'
Oh, and now I suppose someone will develop the robotic porch pirate.
'This thing will start at one end of ...a house and build it complete to the other end, following drawings only.'
