 |
Glossary
of Science Fiction Ideas and Inventions
(
1854 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 |
| Calculator Pad - grandfather of the pocket calculator | Foundation | Asimov | 1951 |
| Caleban Contact - listen to the stars | The Dosadi Experiment | Herbert | 1977 |
| Caliban Beachball - home to the stars | Whipping Star | Herbert | 1969 |
| Call List - very early use | The Age of The Pussyfoot | Pohl | 1965 |
| Calster - portable cash printer | Return from the Stars | Lem | 1961 |
| Camden Speedster - compare this to an SUV | Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Can City - spinning space habitat | Hyperion | Simmons | 1989 |
| Cannibal Grass | Sparrowhawk | Easton | 1990 |
| Canola Oil - a cob in your tank | Virtual Light | Gibson | 1993 |
| Capillotomer | Beyond This Horizon | Heinlein | 1942 |
| Car Sound Tape - what does a hybrid sound like? | The Cat Who Walks Through Walls | Heinlein | 1985 |
| Cardioplate | 'Repent Harlequin' Said the Ticktockman | Ellison | 1965 |
| Carniculture Plants - grow your own meat | Four-Day Planet | Piper | 1961 |
| Carniculture Vat - cultured meat | Space Viking | Piper | 1962 |
| Carryall - giant ornithopter | Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Carson Circuit - the secret of the Internet | A Logic Named Joe | Leinster | 1946 |
| Cartograph - a GPS-like trip readout | The Cometeers | Williamson | 1936 |
| Cataclysmite - high explosive | Little Fuzzy | Piper | 1962 |
| Causality-violation Device (or Weapon) | Singularity Sky | Stross | 2003 |
| Cavorite - antigravity metal | The First Men in the Moon | Wells | 1901 |
| CCD Eyes - metal eyes | Stone Lives | Di Filippo | 1985 |
| Celestial Armamentarium - the mechanism of star movements | The Dragon Masters | Vance | 1962 |
| Cellphone Credit Card - mobile phone wallet | The Age of The Pussyfoot | Pohl | 1965 |
| Cellphone Tranquilizing Spray | The Age of The Pussyfoot | Pohl | 1965 |
| Cellphone Voice Mail - very early use of concept | The Age of The Pussyfoot | Pohl | 1965 |
| Central City (Lunar Habitat) | Earthlight | Clarke | 1955 |
| Central Computer | The City and the Stars | Clarke | 1956 |
| Central Guide-Beam | Shell Game | Dick | 1954 |
| Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy | Brave New World | Huxley | 1932 |
| Cephalic Pattern Door | The Zap Gun | Dick | 1965 |
| Cephalic Sniffer | Clans of the Alphane Moon | Dick | 1964 |
| Cephalochromoscope (Cephscope) - see what's going on in there | A Scanner Darkly | Dick | 1977 |
| Cephalotropic Dart | Lies, Inc. | Dick | 1964 |
| Cerebral Microprocessors | Millenium | Varley | 1983 |
| Chairdog - the ultimate ergonomic chair | The Tactful Saboteur | Herbert | 1964 |
| Chalf (Quick-Scribe Powder) - wave the stick | The Tactful Saboteur | Herbert | 1964 |
| Chalf-Memory Stick | The Tactful Saboteur | Herbert | 1964 |
| Chameleon Cloth - great camouflage | Dying of the Light | Martin | 1977 |
| Cheekplate Container - exoskeleton accessory | A Specter is Haunting Texas | Leiber | 1968 |
| Chemical Orders | Hellstrom's Hive | Herbert | 1972 |
| Chemotactic Artificial Jellyfish - big jellies | Big Jelly | Rucker (w/B. Sterling) | 1994 |
| Chest Disc - speak clearly | Armageddon: 2419 A.D. | Nowlan | 1928 |
| Chevaline - robotic horse | The Diamond Age | Stephenson | 1995 |
| Chicken Little - vat-grown protein | The Space Merchants | Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth) | 1952 |
| ChickieNobs | Oryx and Crake | Atwood | 2003 |
| Chin Plates - hands-free controls | Have Space Suit - Will Travel | Heinlein | 1958 |
| Chiphead - circuits rule, neurons drool | Nanotime | Kosko | 1987 |
| Chirpsithra Supercomputer - build your own | Niven's Laws | Niven | 1984 |
| Christmas Bush Motile Robot - very fine fingers | Rocheworld | Forward | 1985 |
| Chromoplastic Dew Collector - when every drop counts | Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Chronovitameter - your birth and death revealed | Lifeline | Heinlein | 1939 |
| Chunker - non-violent weapon | Virtual Light | Gibson | 1993 |
| CIC Virtual Earth - google earth | Snow Crash | Stephenson | 1992 |
| Cider Press - acceleration made bearable | Double Star | Heinlein | 1956 |
| Cinematophote (Blue Optic Plate) - first reference to television | The Machine Stops | Forster | 1909 |
| Circumlunar - home with lunar views | Schismatrix | Sterling | 1985 |
| Citizen Journalism - silence dogood lives! | Earth | Brin | 1990 |
| City Fathers - AI with centuries of experience | Cities in Flight | Blish | 1957 |
| City of Space - rotating habitat | The Prince of Space | Williamson | 1931 |
| Civic Notification Distorter - bit-rot weaponry | The Zap Gun | Dick | 1965 |
| Clave - a suburban enclave | The Diamond Age | Stephenson | 1995 |
| Claws (Guard Robot) - screamers! | Second Variety | Dick | 1953 |
| Cleaning Machine Warren | Mona Lisa Overdrive | Gibson | 1988 |
| Cloaking Device - invisibility for your whole ship | Balance of Terror | Schneider | 1966 |
| Clothing Size Scanner | Sagramanda | Foster | 2006 |
| Cloud Sculpting - remake the clouds | The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D | Ballard | 1967 |
| Coffiest - coffee plus | The Space Merchants | Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth) | 1952 |
| Coffin Rack - coffin hotel | The Science Fiction Yearbook (ed. Jerry Pournelle) | Gibson | 1984 |
| Cold-Pac Bin | Ubik | Dick | 1969 |
| Cold-Pack - death temporarily denied | Dr. Futurity | Dick | 1960 |
| Cold-Rest - reduced temperature somnolence | Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Cold-Sleep - hibernation between the stars | Between Planets | Heinlein | 1951 |
| Cold-Sleep - hibernation for humans | Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Coley Group | The Shockwave Rider | Brunner | 1975 |
| Collapsar Jump | The Forever War | Haldeman | 1974 |
| Color Generator | The Killing Machine | Vance | 1964 |
| Columbiad - 900 foot cannon | From the Earth to the Moon | Verne | 1867 |
| Combat Wasp - bandolier of munitions | The Reality Dysfunction | Hamilton | 1996 |
| Comeye - portable video camera | Heretics of Dune | Herbert | 1984 |
| Comlink | Star Wars | Lucas | 1976 |
| Command Microphone | Diplomat At Arms | Laumer | 1982 |
| Commercial Fly | The Simulacra | Dick | Ace |
| Communicate with Extraterrestrials - first use of concept | From the Earth to the Moon | Verne | 1867 |
| Communications Implant - I think therefore I network | Oath of Fealty | Pournelle (w/L. Niven) | 1981 |
| Commute Ship | Sales Pitch | Dick | 1954 |
| Commuter Cooling Unit - portable air conditioning | The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | Dick | 1965 |
| Companion Implant - life monitor | Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax) | Sawyer | 2003 |
| Companion Robot | The Midas Plague | Pohl | 1954 |
| Compassion Circuit | Compassion Circuit | Wyndham | 1954 |
| Composite Expert System - interface with a heart | Twenty Evocations | Sterling | 1984 |
| Compulsive Subsonics - ads dodge your cortex | The Space Merchants | Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth) | 1952 |
| Computer Translator - computer translator and GPS | Idoru | Gibson | 1996 |
| Computer Worm (Tapeworm) - first use of the concept | The Shockwave Rider | Brunner | 1975 |
| Computer-Created Dub | Neuromancer | Gibson | 1984 |
| Computronium - nanocomputers by the handful | Accelerando | Stross | 2005 |
| Concentrated Light - predicts the laser | The Shining One | Schachner | 1937 |
| Concentro | Armageddon: 2419 A.D. | Nowlan | 1928 |
| Concrete Boxes - U-Stor-U | Earth Made of Glass | Barnes | 1998 |
| Conductive Film - spray on wire | The Face | Vance | 1979 |
| Cone of Silence - the original sound-dampener | Cease Fire | Herbert | 1958 |
| Construct - persona in software | Neuromancer | Gibson | 1984 |
| Consumption Robots | The Midas Plague | Pohl | 1954 |
| Contact Venom | Twenty Evocations | Sterling | 1984 |
| Control Helmet | Easy Money | Hamilton | 1938 |
| Control Natural | Beyond This Horizon | Heinlein | 1942 |
| Control Screen | Childhood's End | Clarke | 1953 |
| Control-Face - an LCD remote control | Idoru | Gibson | 1996 |
| Controlway | Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Cookie-Cutters - bomblets in your bloodstream | The Diamond Age | Stephenson | 1995 |
| Cop Block - patrol officer's friend | Quantico | Bear | 2007 |
| Copseye - a surveillance drone | Cloak of Anarchy | Niven | 1972 |
| CopSpace - MySpace for police, and then some | Halting State | Stross | 2007 |
| Copter Harness | The Star Beast | Heinlein | 1954 |
| Corpsicle - thaw and fix | The Age of The Pussyfoot | Pohl | 1965 |
| Cortical Stack - USB/WiFi flashdrive for your brain | Altered Carbon | Morgan | 2003 |
| Cosmic Teletype | Cosmic Teletype | Jacobi | 1938 |
| Courtarena - trial by fire | The Tactful Saboteur | Herbert | 1964 |
| Crackers | The Time Mercenaries | High | 1968 |
| Crash Balloons | Ringworld | Niven | 1970 |
| Crash Web | Crashlander | Niven | 1994 |
| Crechepod - full life support | The Godmakers | Herbert | 1972 |
| Credit Card - why carry cash? | Looking Backward | Bellamy | 1888 |
| Credit Wake - credit card transaction blog | Hyperion | Simmons | 1989 |
| Creditor Jet-Balloon - bane of debtors | Lies, Inc. | Dick | 1964 |
| Crimestop - no dangerous thoughts | 1984 | Orwell | 1948 |
| Crosswell Tape Worm | Super-Toys Last All Summer Long | Aldiss | 1969 |
| Crysknife - knife from a sandworm's tooth | Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Crystal Corn - tiny crystal books | Return from the Stars | Lem | 1961 |
| Culture Tank | Needle | Clement | 1950 |
| Customized Clothing - mass customization | Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Cutteray - mining laser | Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Cybernetic Water Witch - | Idoru | Gibson | 1996 |
| Cyberspace - the original consensual hallucination | Burning Chrome | Gibson | 1982 |
| Cyborg - man plus machine | The Moon is a Harsh Mistress | Heinlein | 1966 |
| Cyborg | Cyborg | Caidin | 1972 |
| Cyborg Collar - controlled work gangs | A Specter is Haunting Texas | Leiber | 1968 |
| Cyborg Dolphin (Jones) - war surplus named Jones | Johnny Mnemonic | Gibson | 1981 |
| Cybrid - person as data terminal | Hyperion | Simmons | 1989 |
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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Science Fiction
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Interactive TV Patent From Sony
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Smart Contact Lens With Power Harvesting Circuits
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