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"...a few centuries of coherent humanist thought, set against a million odd years of evolved killer ape tendency. No-one's going to give you very good odds on humanism, are they?"
- Richard Morgan
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| Lasgun | ||
| A continuous-wave laser projector; can be used as a weapon or as a cutting tool. |
The lasgun is another in a series of laser-based weapons; the descendant of the "blasters" of the science fiction of the 1920's.
| Kynes took a deep breath, said: "This door should hold for at least twenty minutes against all but a lasgun." "They'll not use a lasgun for fear we've shields on this side," Paul said. |
| From Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
Its use as a weapon is limited by subatomic fusion that occurs when the beam of a lasgun (offensive weapon) intersects that of a shield using the Holtzman field (defensive weapon). See the blaster (1925) from When the Green Star Waned by Nictzin Dyalhis, the neutron blaster (1951), from The Complete Paratime, by H. Beam Piper and the heat ray from The War of the Worlds (1898), by H.G. Wells.
Compare to nuclear shears from Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov, the
toaster from Accidental Flight (1952) by WF Wallace, the
Slaver disintegrator from Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven and the
atomic torch from One Against the Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson.
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'...unseen mechanical entities... that are in our very midst. One of them following each of us.'
'... he crossed the waiting room to the Padre booth; inside he put a dime into the slot and dialed at random.'
'Perhaps we had better use the soundtrack and let it hunt.'
