 |
Science Fiction Dictionary: Ideas, Terms and Technology
(
3938 Inventions Available)
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Device Name | Book/Story | Author | Date |
| Babble Machine Not just television - this describes what we call 'the idiot box' (technology and media). |
When the Sleeper Wakes | Wells | 1899 |
| Babel Fish A living fish which, when placed in your ear, will live there and translate any form of language for you. |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Adams | 1979 |
| Babel-17 An alien weapon in the form of a language. |
Babel-17 | Delany | 1966 |
| Baby Robot An infant robot. |
Life Everlasting | Keller | 1934 |
| Bacteria-Destroying Radiation A special beam that created a sterile field for operations. |
Dr. Futurity | Dick | 1960 |
| Ball and Hammer Ship Spaceship comprised of two sections connected by a shaft. |
Dorsai! | Dickson | 1960 |
| Ballistic Calculator An on-board computer for a spaceship to calculate its course and perform other related tasks. |
Misfit | Heinlein | 1939 |
| Ballisticules Nanotechnology devices that throw their weight around. |
The Diamond Age | Stephenson | 1995 |
| Ball-Taxi A floating, spherical cab. |
Earth Rehabilitators, Consolidated | Kostkos | 1935 |
| Bambakias Hotel A hotel that wants to exist! It just needs a little help. |
Distraction | Sterling | 1998 |
| Bank Chip A "smart" credit card. |
Mona Lisa Overdrive | Gibson | 1988 |
| Banning Gun Shoots a pencil heat ray. |
Voyage 13 | Cummings | 1938 |
| Barber Helmet Cuts your hair quickly and efficiently. |
Ben Gleed, King of Speed | Wilcox | 1939 |
| Bard A machine that invents randomized stories and can read them out loud or animate them for viewing. |
Someday | Asimov | 1956 |
| Barker A device that scans for nearby medical implants, and allows the operator to take control. |
The Human Blend | Foster | 2010 |
| Barrels of Air A very early mention of a means for breathing once above the Earth's atmosphere. |
The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century | Loudon | 1828 |
| Barrier (Force Field) Force-field fence. |
Coventry | Heinlein | 1940 |
| Barytrine Field Very large scale stasis field. |
Troubled Star | Smith | 1952 |
| Basic Robot Personality Providing simple personalities to robots. |
Simultaneous Worlds | Schachner | 1938 |
| Bat Wings The dream of human-powered winged flight becomes a reality - in low gravity, of course. |
Limits | Niven | 1985 |
| Batacitor A storage device for electricity that could be charged in a very short time. |
The Fabulous Riverboat | Farmer | 1971 |
| Bats' Cave A natural cavern used by moon colonists for air storage - and entertainment. |
The Menace From Earth | Heinlein | 1957 |
| Battery-Powered 3D Comic Book A comic book the pages of which were animated by battery power. |
The Zap Gun | Dick | 1965 |
| Battle Integrator A three-dimensional representation of warfare in space. |
The Bureaucrat | Jameson | 1944 |
| Battle Language A special-purpose language designed for both clear communication of information related to war, and difficulty of translation. |
Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Battle Sphere An armored space ship using the simplest geometric shape. |
The Space Rover | Sloat | 1932 |
| Battle Tank Display Three-dimensional display showing tactical information for space battles. |
Cities in Flight | Blish | 1957 |
| Battleroom A large, null-gravity space used for battle tactics training. |
Ender's Game | Card | 1985 |
| Beam Car A vehicle like an elevator car, but which travels on a radio and magnetic beam, from the surface of a planet up to a satellite. |
Lost City of Mars | Vincent | 1934 |
| Beam-Pistol A handheld ray gun. |
Murder in the Void | Hamilton | 1938 |
| Beam-Powered Propulsion Using a powerful energy source as motive power for a projectile. |
The Prince of Space | Williamson | 1931 |
| Beanstalk Clever name for the space elevator. |
Friday | Heinlein | 1982 |
| Beckerley Electrical Field An energy field that can protect a city or large area. |
Smothered Seas | Farley (w/SG Weinbaum) | 1936 |
| Bedog A sentient creature designed to be a bed. |
The Dosadi Experiment | Herbert | 1977 |
| Bee Cam Small, airborne, self-guided personal camcorder. |
City of Pearl | Traviss | 2004 |
| Bee Wing A flapping wing aircraft in use on Mars. |
Slacker's Paradise | Jameson | 1941 |
| Bee Zapper A laser-based insect remover. |
Earth | Brin | 1990 |
| Beeper A handheld radar set, used to find items that have drifted off. |
Islands in the Sky | Clarke | 1952 |
| Beetle A hard-shelled dirigible. |
Saturn's Race | Niven (w/S. Barnes) | 2000 |
| Belt Automatic-Equalizers The wearer's experience of gravity will be just like Earth's. |
The Star-Roamers | Hamilton | 1933 |
| Belt Sword A piece of very thin material sewn between the two leather sides of a belt. |
All Tomorrow's Parties | Gibson | 1999 |
| Belter A person who was born and raised in the asteroid belt around Sol. |
The Warriors | Niven | 1966 |
| Beltway A moving sidewalk. |
The Faceless Men | Zagat | 1948 |
| Bendix Anxiety Reducer Machine-based psychotherapy. |
Bad Medicine | Sheckley | 1956 |
| Bergenholm Drive A device that renders a spaceship free of inertia. |
Triplanetary | Smith | 1934 |
| Beta Beam Satellite |
Limits | Niven | 1985 |
| Bethé blasters Powerful enough to destroy a flying city. |
Cities in Flight | Blish | 1957 |
| Betrization An in utero method of reducing human aggression. |
Return from the Stars | Lem | 1961 |
| Bibs People who are put in cold-sleep because there is no niche for them in society. |
Cantata 140 | Dick | 1964 |
| Bifocal TV Screen Lenses Using the bottom lens of bifocals as a TV screen. |
Doom Over Venus | Hamilton | 1940 |
| Big Computer Just like it says; this computer knows it all. |
Millennium | Varley | 1983 |
| Big Flue Enormous incinerators serviced directly by helicopter. |
Fahrenheit 451 | Bradbury | 1953 |
| Big Noodle A vast artificial intelligence system used to process all of Earth's information. |
The Divine Invasion | Dick | 1981 |
| Big Push A linear accelerator built on a long track; a mass driver. |
Limits | Niven | 1985 |
| Big Screen Control Display content from your personal device on a large shared screen. |
The Age of The Pussyfoot | Pohl | 1966 |
| Biltong Life Form Remarkable organic manufacturing aliens, probably indigenous to the Centaurus system. |
Pay for the Printer | Dick | 1956 |
| Bio-Energy The first reference to extracting electricity from organic materials. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift | 1726 |
| Bio-Fabric Living cloth that constantly adapts itself to the personality and needs of its wearer. |
Say Goodby to the Wind | Ballard | 1970 |
| Bioform House A house grown from a bioengineered plant. |
Sparrowhawk | Easton | 1990 |
| Bio-Implant (Compensator Chip) A neural implant that helps an autistic child to live a more complete and useful life. |
Hella | Gerrold | 2020 |
| Biological Circuit Fabrication Creating an electronic circuit using biologically-based means. |
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe | Unknown | 1984 |
| Biological Package Probe |
A World Out of Time | Niven | 1976 |
| Biological Warfare The use of microorganisms to defeat an enemy; this is the first reference in science fiction that I can find to this concept. |
The War of the Worlds | Wells | 1898 |
| Biologics A computer that is made of organic (biological) components, rather than inorganic materials like silicon. |
Blood Music | Bear | 1984 |
| Biolution The revolution in biological manufacturing techniques. |
The Tels | Black | 2003 |
| Bionic Arm An artificial arm that responds in a manner similar to the 'original equipment' item. |
Cyborg | Caidin | 1972 |
| Bionic Legs Human legs rebuilt and improved. |
Cyborg | Caidin | 1972 |
| Biosoft A biography that includes actual life experience from the subject; a biographical download. |
Count Zero | Gibson | 1986 |
| Biot A biological robot. |
Rendezvous With Rama | Clarke | 1972 |
| Bird-Like Robots Robotic birds used in a stage play. |
Flamingo: A Drama of A.D. 1950 | Heller | 1930 |
| Birthing egg A chamber for in vitro fertilization (IVF), combining the DNA of two people to produce a child, without all the usual bother. |
Nanotime | Kosko | 1987 |
| Black Bag A medical kit from the future. |
The Little Black Bag | Kornbluth | 1950 |
| Black Coating A material that absorbs practically all incident light. |
Gray Lensman | Smith | 1942 |
| Black Cube Teaching Machine A device that offers recorded images, teaching the user. |
The Flame From Mars | Williamson | 1934 |
| Black Smoke A smoke or vapor dispensed in canisters. |
The War of the Worlds | Wells | 1898 |
| Black square A device for secret communication. |
God Emperor of Dune | Herbert | 1981 |
| Blacknet An antisocial networking site. |
Halting State | Stross | 2007 |
| Blackout Gas Cuts input from the optic nerve. |
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge | Harrison | 1970 |
| Bladder Birds Alien life well adapted. |
Redemption Cairn | Weinbaum | 1936 |
| Blast Rifle A gun that creates a short-range energy blast. |
Exiles of the Stratosphere | Long, Jr. | 1937 |
| Blaster A device that shoots a beam of energy that destroys whatever is in its path. |
When the Green Star Waned | Dyalhis | 1925 |
| Blastick A scorching beam weapon |
The Traitor | von Rachen | 1941 |
| Blast-Off The act of firing a rocket into space. |
The Cavern of the Shining Pool | Zagat | 1937 |
| Blaupunkt Holostage A three-dimensional tabletop display. |
Snake-Eyes | Maddox | 1986 |
| BLIT (Secret Basilisk) The Berryman Logical Image Technique can "shock" an AI trained to do pattern recognition. |
Blit | Langford | 1988 |
| Blithe A plant engineered to produce a substance that brought out compliant behavior in those who consumed it. |
Anathem | Stephenson | 2008 |
| Bloodhound Machine Could positively identify a person using their scent alone. |
Crimes of the Year 2000 | Cummings | 1935 |
| Blue Beam A pitiless pale blue beam of death! |
The Reign of the Masters | Hamilton | 1931 |
| Blue Collar Robot (Self-Repairing) An autonomous robot required to find its own work. |
The Velvet Glove | Harrison | 1956 |
| Blue Ray of Death A ray that reduces an organic being to ash instantly. |
Across Space | Hamilton | 1926 |
| Blurbflies (Sing. Blurbfly) Small robotic/organic advertisers. |
Nymphomation | Noon | 2000 |
| Boat-Tree A tree, the pods of which can be grown as boats. |
The Houses of Iszm | Vance | 1954 |
| Bohemias A place where the ordinary rules of society don't apply; the "next big thing" often comes from these places. |
All Tomorrow's Parties | Gibson | 1999 |
| Boink Biosensor A hand-held sensor that detects the presence of hazardous biological material. |
The Cobra Event | Preston | 1997 |
| Bokanovsky's Process A very early description of cloning. |
Brave New World | Huxley | 1932 |
| Bolo An highly advanced combat tank controlled by a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence. |
Combat Unit | Laumer | 1960 |
| Bolognium Very early fictional element, courtesy of metallurgists. |
Transactions of Amer Soc for Steel Treating | Bain | 1926 |
| Bolt Anti-Grav This device produces a torus-shaped discharge that causes weightlessness. |
Sacred Martian Pig (Idris' Pig) | St. Clair | 1949 |
| Bone Conduction Receiver A concealed radio receiver. |
Sixth Column | MacDonald | 1941 |
| Bone-Building Compounds Combat heavy gravity on other planets by building greater bone density in workers and colonists. |
A Conquest of Two Worlds | Hamilton | 1932 |
| Boob Cube Device for showing three-dimensional news broadcasts. |
The Best of all Possible Wars | Niven | 1998 |
| Book of the Kalends The ever-changing book without a title; the documented history of a world. |
Galactic Pot-Healer | Dick | 1969 |
| Book-Film A storage medium for books. |
Prelude to Foundation | Asimov | 1988 |
| Booklegger A smuggler of books. |
Between Planets | Heinlein | 1951 |
| Boomer Park Where the baby boomers all went to retire and die. |
Nanotime | Kosko | 1987 |
| Boosterspice A substance that extends human life almost indefinitely. |
Ringworld Engineers | Niven | 1980 |
| Boppers Self-reproducing robots; they did not obey Asimov's laws for robots (or any other man-made rules). |
Wetware | Rucker | 1988 |
| Bore-Pellets Anti-underground bomb shelter ordinance. |
Foster, You're Dead | Dick | 1955 |
| Boring Heat Machine Takes tunnel boring material and turns it into building material. |
The Onslaught From Venus | Phillips | 1929 |
| Bot The first use of this contraction for "robot". |
We All Died At Breakaway Station | Meredith | 1969 |
| Boulder A device that homed in on a person's brain wave pattern; a very specific assassination device. |
Cantata 140 | Dick | 1964 |
| Bounce Tube A people-sized pneumatic tube system used for short, quick trips in the vertical dimension. |
Double Star | Heinlein | 1956 |
| Brain Erasure Deleting selected knowledge from the brain using electrical impulses. |
The Knowledge Machine | Hamilton | 1948 |
| Brain Machine Powerful mechanical computer. |
The Eternal Wanderer | Schachner | Astounding |
| Brain Placed In Metal Body A robotic body with a support system for a connected organic brain. |
The Comet Doom | Hamilton | 1929 |
| Brain Rejuvenation Erase unnecessary parts of memory to make room for new impressions. |
The Message From Space | Speaker | 1930 |
| Brain-Case A device designed to transport a living human (or alien, if similar) brain. |
Murder in the Void | Hamilton | 1938 |
| Brain-Jacking Using insects for surveillance. |
Kill Decision | Suarez | 2012 |
| Brainlock A technique to focus the attention of prisoners on a limited task, precluding the possibility of escape. |
Mona Lisa Overdrive | Gibson | 1988 |
| BrainPal A neural implant. |
Old Man's War | Scalzi | 2005 |
| Brain-Plate Ensures the obedience of robots. |
Women's World | Cooke | 1939 |
| Brains An electronic brain that is able to do problem solving. This idea seems to be the impetus behind current artificial intelligence that seeks to solve problems, rather than to simulate human intelligenc |
The Cosmic Blinker | Binder | 1953 |
| Braking Disks Used when the ship is falling through a planetary atmosphere. |
A Daring Trip To Mars | Valier | 1931 |
| Breathing Dresses A special suit and apparatus for survival on the surface of the Moon. |
A Honeymoon In Space | Griffith | 1901 |
| Breed Humans For Machines Carefully cull the strong, resilient humans in favor of weakness, that the human race might be more adapted to life in the Machine. |
The Machine Stops | Forster | 1909 |
| Brick Moon An artificial satellite or space station with living quarters for passengers. |
The Brick Moon | Hale | 1869 |
| Briefcase Computer A portable computer workstation. |
Inherit the Stars | Hogan | 1977 |
| Briefcase Console A notebook computer |
Oath of Fealty | Pournelle (w/L. Niven) | 1981 |
| Brood Assembly Artificially intelligent computers that can replicate themselves. |
Cities in Flight | Blish | 1957 |
| Broomstick Device to ease movement in a zero-gravity environment. |
Islands in the Sky | Clarke | 1952 |
| Broomstick Speedster A two-seater craft capable of spaceflight; it used radiant power to achieve orbit. |
Waldo | Heinlein | 1942 |
| Browser Paper A paper-thin computer display. |
Rainbows End | Vinge | 2006 |
| Bubble An undersea elevator. |
Saturn's Race | Niven (w/S. Barnes) | 2000 |
| Bubble Armor Space Suit Steel bubble-shaped space suit. |
Agent of Vega | Schmitz | 1949 |
| Bubble Car Self-steering, hovering, this is the car of the future. |
A World Out of Time | Niven | 1976 |
| Bubble City Underwater domes provide living space for large communities. |
My Name is Legion | Zelazny | 1976 |
| Bubble-Gum Pylon Device used to capture entire vehicles in car chases. |
Quantico | Bear | 2007 |
| Bubblehead A person who as undergone E therapy, and achieved the frontal lobe of their dreams. |
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | Dick | 1965 |
| Bubbleworld A rigid space station that is shaped like a cylinder, rotated to achieve centripetal gravity. |
At the Bottom of a Hole | Niven | 1966 |
| Bug A compact vehicle for planetary surfaces - like Mercury. |
Brightside Crossing | Nourse | 1956 |
| Bug Chasers Anti-surveillance devices. |
Lies, Inc. | Dick | 1964 |
| Buggaroo Martian creature for transportation. |
The Secret of the Canali | Kruse | 1938 |
| Bugged Money American cash with embedded listening devices. |
Distraction | Sterling | 1998 |
| Build A Planet With Asteroids The idea that it is possible to gather up enough of the asteroids in the solar system to "build" a planet out of the scraps. |
And Then the Town Took Off | Wilson | 1958 |
| Building With Lunar Materials Using a planet's materials to make what you need. |
The Moon is Hell | Campbell | 1950 |
| Bulerite A building material, too good to be true, with hidden properties. |
Macrolife | Zebrowski | 1979 |
| Bullet-guard Overalls Very tough fabric. |
Kiln People | Brin | 2002 |
| Burbclave Contraction of suburban enclave; an extension of today's gated communities. |
Snow Crash | Stephenson | 1992 |
| Burn the Ship Utilize parts of the ship as fuel for forward movement. |
Around the World in 80 days | Verne | 1868 |
| Burner Modem A connection device that can be thrown away if necessary. |
The Breach | Hill | 2020 |
| Bussard Ramjet Propulsion method that scoops hydrogen atoms from space via electromagnetic fields. |
A World Out of Time | Niven | 1976 |
| Butcher Vegetable A plant that grows steaks (protein). |
Time is the Simplest Thing | Simak | 1961 |
| Butler-Valet Robot A gentleman's servant, roboticized. |
The Jester | Tenn | 1951 |
| Buttered Toast Robot What it says on the tin. |
Fahrenheit 451 | Bradbury | 1953 |
| Buy-Me-Discs Tiny disks attached to products in stores that received transmitted ads to share with consumers. |
Captive Audience | Griffith | 1953 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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