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"it slowly dawned on me that the landscape of science is maybe what interests people a great deal in science fiction."
- Gregory Benford
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| Nullentropy Bin | ||
| A compartment in which entropy was halted. |
In the novel, the ghola Duncan Idaho encounters objects from Dune's past. The nullentropy bin is a great plot device, keeping even food in a state of preservation.
| Duncan sat alone at the autoscrubbed table, a cup of brown liquid in front of him. Teg recognized the smell: one of the many melange-laced items from the nullentropy bins. The bins were a treasure house of exotic foods, clothing, weapons, and other artifacts - a museum whose value could not be calculated. There was a thin layer of dust all through the globe but no deterioration of the things stored here. |
| Technovelgy from Heretics of Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1984 Additional resources -
|
This is a spectacularly useful plot device. This is the fifth of the six Dune books written by Frank Herbert; it is an interesting work, but inevitably derivative of the original work. The nullentropy bin allows the characters to have a true experience of the past.
The earliest use of this concept that I can find is the stasis box (Larry Niven).
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'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
