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"I think that self-limitation is the major limiting factor for most people in the world."
- Frank Herbert
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| Ringworld | ||
| A 50 foot thick ribbon of matter around a star, a million miles across and as long as Earth's orbital circumference. |
The central "character" of Ringworld is the world itself. An artifact that is a ribbon of matter with a star at it's center, it has over 3 million times as much surface area as the Earth. The ring rotates at 770 miles per second, providing centripetal force of roughly our gravity. What did it look like from the surface?
| The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky. Rather, earth and sky seemed to merge in a region where details the size of continents would have been mere points, where vanishing point held his eyes fixed. |
| Technovelgy from Ringworld,
by Larry Niven. Published by Ballantine in 1970 Additional resources -
|
For a very nice mathematical treatment of the Ringworld, see The Physics of the Ringworld by Alan Eisinger.
The ring is a compromise between a normal planet and a Dyson sphere. With the ring you only get a fraction of the available sunlight, but you can see the stars and you don't need gravity generators.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Ringworld
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to Ringworld
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Ringworld-related
news articles:
- The Cygnus Bubble And Astroengineering
- A Solar System Swept Clean - For A Dyson Swarm
- Denmark Island Earth (Verdenskortet ala Ringworld)
| With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need |
| Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast |
| LiquidView Ersatz Windows, ala Philip K. Dick |
| Solar House Concept Unfolds Solar Panels Like A Flower |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
