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"...if you want to know what your future looks like, don't waste your time on Analog; read Time magazine. We are already saturated in the future. "
- Peter Watts
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| Glowglobe | ||
| Floating spherical light bulb with organic energy source. |
Lighting is important to any decorating scheme; the lighting used in science fiction also sheds light (pun intended) on the technology available to the people in the story. On Dune, there is always the contrast between primitive tribal psychology and technology more advanced than we now possess
| Paul came to his senses, feeling the sand needles sting his exposed cheeks. We are committed, he thought. He put an arm around the signalman's shoulder, said: "Leave the equipment! There's more in the tunnel." He felt himself being pulled away, Fedaykin pressed around him to protect him. They squeezed into the tunnel mouth, feeling its comparative silence, turned a corner into a small chamber with glowglobes overhead and another tunnel opening beyond. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
You can't really tell from this passage, but other uses make it clear that these globes glow without any apparent external power source (they don't seem to be plugged in anywhere).
Many thousands of years later, this device is still in use, though its forms have changed; see pole-tethered glowglobe.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Dune
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Dune
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Glowglobe-related
news articles:
- GlowRing: Light Without Power
- Lev, Theremin-Playing Robot
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'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
