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"In science fiction one can say a great many things that are unpalatable, … because it's expressed as science fiction you can slip it past their defenses."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Refrigeration Tape | ||
| A strip of material that can be used to keep large tracts of tundra nicely frozen. |
The Tower of Glass is being built in the tundra west of Hudson Bay in Canada.
| From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips of refrigeration tape, embedded fifty centimeters deep in the frozen carpet of soil, roots, moss, and lichens that is the tundra. The tapes stretch several kilometers in each direction. Their helium-II diffusion cells soak up the heat generated by the androids and vehicles used in building the tower. If the tapes were not there, the tundra would soon be transformed by the energy-output of construction into a lake of mud; the colossal tower's foundation-caissons would lose their grip, and the great building would tilt and tumble like a felled titan... |
| From Tower of Glass,
by Robert Silverberg. Published by Gollancz in 1970 Additional resources -
|
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