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
"We didn't have a telephone and our family until I was about 15, in high school."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Battleroom | ||
| A large, null-gravity space used for battle tactics training. |
| They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side. Null gravity was frightening, disorienting; they soon found that things went better if they didn't use their feet at all. |
| From Ender's Game,
by Orson Scott Card. Published by Tor in 1985 Additional resources -
|
A much earlier description of interpersonal fighting in zero-gravity is given by Arthur C. Clarke in Islands in the Sky (1952):
The first problem, of course, is to catch your opponent, which isn't easy, because if he refuses to cooperate, he can shoot off in so many directions. But
even if he decides to play, there are further difficulties.
Any kind of boxing is almost impossible, since the first
blow would send you flying apart. So the only practicable form of combat is wrestling. It usually starts
with the two fighters floating in mid-air, as far as possible from any solid object. They grasp wrists, with
their arms fully extended; after that it's difficult to see
exactly what happens. The air is full of flying limbs
and slowly rotating bodies. By the rules of the game,
you've won if you can keep your opponent pinned
against any wall for a count of five. This is much more
difficult than it sounds, for he only has to give a good
heave to send both of you flying out into the room
again. Remember that, since there's no gravity, you
can't just sit on your victim until your weight tires
him out.
Compare to rocket polo from Ra for the Rajah (1938) by John Victor Peterson.
...he was always getting into
good-humored fights with the other boys, and a fight
under free-fall conditions is fascinating to watch,
Comment/Join this discussion ( 3 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Ender's Game
More Ideas
and Technology by Orson Scott Card
Tech news articles related to Ender's Game
Tech news articles related to works by Orson Scott Card
| Slaughterbot AI KIller Quadcopter Drones |
| Russia Working On Military Exoskeletons |
| TALOS Exoskeleton Development Proceeding |
| Britney Spears And Lynn Minmay - Weapons Of Choice |
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.
|
Convincing video shows progress (and limitations).
'The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.'
'Against Death doth no simple grow.'
'His legs relaxed with a rattle as he cut off all power below his waist... and ran his eye down the Help Wanted - Robot column...'
'It can be mass-produced only in the orbiting factories.'
'He realized that it was not quite a clear lens.'
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed down the long aisles...'
'Here is the chronoscope... Scansion depends upon a special curved field...'
'It's illegal to hold back information during a psyche test.'
