Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Writing about the future, I have a vested interest in there being a future for me to write about."
- John Brunner
 |
| Personal Force-Shield | ||
| A portable force-shield small enough to be carried by a single man. |
In this excerpt, Hober Mallow, Foundation Trader, talks with patrician Onum Barr.
| "Listen!" There was a feverish edge to the old man's voice. "I knew you when you entered. You have a force-shield about your body, or had when I first saw you."
Doubtful silence, then, "Yes, –I had." "Good. That was a flaw, but you didn't know that. There are some things I know. It's out of fashion in these decaying times to be a scholar. Events race and flash past and who cannot fight the tide with nuclear-blast in hand is swept away, as I was. But I was a scholar, and I know that in all the history of nucleics, no portable force-shield was ever invented. We have force-shields – huge, lumbering powerhouses that will protect a city, or even a ship, but not one, single man." "Ah?" Mallow's underlip thrust out. "And what do you deduce from that?" "There have been stories percolating through space. They travel strange paths and become distorted with every parsec, –but when I was young there was a small ship of strange men, who did not know our customs and could not tell where they came from. They talked of magicians at the edge of the Galaxy; magicians who glowed in the darkness, who flew unaided through the air, and whom weapons would not touch. |
| From Foundation,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
This is a very early reference to this idea, but it is not the first. Consider the personal protective-shield from Triplanetary, written by E.E. "Doc" Smith in 1948.
Compare to the shield from Skylark Three (1930) by EE 'Doc' Smith, the Langston field from The Mote in God's Eye (1974) by Niven and Pournelle and the deflector shield from Star Wars (1976) by George Lucas.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Foundation
More Ideas
and Technology by Isaac Asimov
Tech news articles related to Foundation
Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov
| Bigrating Laser Beam-Riding Light Sail Is Self-Correcting |
| ISS Astronauts Test Estee Lauder 'Advanced Night Repair' Skin Serum |
| Gather Ye Moonrocks While Ye May |
| An Ocean On Ceres |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Lucky touched the leap knob and the hopper's leg retracted.'
'It was among these leviathans that the little gyrocar was daring to thrust its puny self...'
'That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part.'
'Out in the New Moon, just ask for what you want...'
'For long-distance calls the ratio of commercial to conversation was as high as 10 to 1...'
