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"We were essentially being shell-shocked by rapid change. That was one of the things you needed science-fiction writers for back in the Sixties, because we could cope with 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
resources:
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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'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
'Gaines and Harvey mounted tumblebugs, and kept abreast of the Cadet Captain...'
Accompanied by a small selection of similar ideas from science fiction.
'...war-balloons, or, as it would be more correct to call them, navigable aerostats.'
