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"But the problem with reincarnation is that it's hard to imagine what the storage medium for past lives would be. Not to mention the input-output device. I hesitate to rule it out completely, but I'd need pretty definite proof."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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| Cutteray | ||
| A laser used in a range of tools - including mining equipment. |
The planet Dune presented a very harsh environment to its human inhabitants. The most sensible way to live was to burrow underground in solid rock. What sort of mining equipment would be needed to cut rooms in rock efficiently?
| He found himself in the assembly hall through which he and his men had been led by Tuek's aides. It was a long, fairly narrow area chewed out of the native rock, its smooth surface betraying the use of cutteray burners for the job. The ceiling stretched away high enough to continue the natural supporting curve of the rock and to permit internal air-convection currents. Weapons racks and lockers lined the walls. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
These tools were also used by the Fremen once they were able to work within the system to get the tools of the Imperium to do their work in transforming Dune:
Read more about the future of mining equipment, including software simulations and tele-remote operated underground machinery.
See also the slaver disintegrator, a rather effective technology used in "digging tools" in the novel Ringworld, by Larry Niven.
Station tools began finding their way into the sietch warrens -- especially cutterays which were used to dig underground catchbasins and hidden windtraps.
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Cutteray-related
news articles:
- Microwave Drill Heats And Pokes
| DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures' |
| Robot Bricklayer Or Passer-By Bricklayer? |
| Organic Non-Planar 3D Printing |
| Laser-Beam Welding In Orbital Factories |
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
