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"I share the view of Pythagoras that the world is number. The ultimate substrate of the universe is math. There's no way to test that - it's pure metaphysical speculation."
- Bart Kosko
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| Neutron Disruption Blaster | ||
| Beam pistol which splits neutrons into protons and electrons, releasing enormous energy. |
In the "Paratime" series by Horace Beam Piper(1904-1964), this was used by the First Level civilization. Since ours is Fourth Level, hopefully we won't be making one any time soon.
| "...Verkan Vall aimed the blaster and squeezed. In a spot less than a millimeter in diameter on the crocodile idol's side, a certain number of neutrons in the atomic structure of the stone from which it was carved broke apart, becoming in effect atoms of hydrogen. With a flash and a bang, the idol burst and vanished. |
| Technovelgy from The Complete Paratime,
by H. Beam Piper. Published by Astounding Fiction in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Largely self-educated, H. Beam Piper created the fascinatingly complex "Paratime" alternate history world, with levels and sublevels of varying technological advancement, based on the premise of Earth being colonized by Martians 100,000 years ago.
Compare to the blaster from When the Green Star Waned (1925) by Nictzin Dyalhis, the stationary automatic blaster from Red Planet (1949) by Robert Heinlein and the meteor blasters from First Contact (1945), by Murray Leinster.
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
