Science Fiction Dictionary: Terms, Ideas and Technology

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
T.I.E. Fighter (Tie Fighter) A highly maneuverable fighter spacecraft using an ion drive propulsion system.	Star Wars	Lucas	1976
Tabletop Display A display monitor built into a flat, horizontal table surface.	An Adventure in Time	Flagg	1930
Tacspace An augmented representation of space battles.	The Algebraist	Banks	2004
Tagalong A backpack with legs; a robot that will carry things for you and match your movements.	In the Bowl	Varley	1976
Tag-Along Balloon A bladder-like device that both finds and temporarily fixes leaks in moon tunnels or space station habitats.	Gentlemen, Be Seated	Heinlein	1948
Talisman Device that causes beings nearby to experience truth and peace; works only in the hands of rare adepts.	Way Station	Simak	1963
Talking Bomb A psychological warfare weapon that talks to the enemy.	Starship Troopers	Heinlein	1959
Talking Head A mechanical head (with an analog voice) used as the output terminal for a computer.	Neuromancer	Gibson	1984
Talking Pamphlet An instructional pamphlet that instructs you through ordinary speech.	Ellison Wonderland	Ellison	1974
Talking Robot An impractical robot, for display only.	Robbie (Strange Playfellow)	Asimov	1940
Talking Speedometer A gauge that tells you its value verbally	Biddiver	Sturgeon	1941
Talking Tape Adhesive-backed network connection, global positioning, voice synthesis and speakers.	Distraction	Sterling	1998
Tand A metal sculpture, made in contemplation, which has great meaning for the initiates.	The Dragon Masters	Vance	1962
Tanglefoot Field A force field that would not harm but merely entangle and stop anyone (or anything) caught in it.	The Star Beast	Heinlein	1954
Tangler Strong webbing in a tiny capsule, it expands to a net, capturing a suspect.	Logan's Run	Nolan (w/G.C. Johnson)	1967
Tanks Device that provides mass storage of information.	A Logic Named Joe	Leinster	1946
Tannin-Secretion Pills Artificially darkens skin, for skin protection.	Crashlander	Niven	1994
TANSTAAFL There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress	Heinlein	1966
Taper A device that records details about a visit to a distant planet.	Time is the Simplest Thing	Simak	1961
Tapeworm Tranquilizer Robotic suppository dispenses tranquilizer.	Revolution from Rosinante	Gilliland	1981
Taprisiot A kind of symbiote, which attuned itself to the user, allowing an expansion of consciousness - telepathic communication anywhere in the galaxy in real time.	The Dosadi Experiment	Herbert	1977
Taprisiot Monitor Bead A small bead to be swallowed that allowed the thoughts of a person to be transmitted and recorded during a specified interval.	The Dosadi Experiment	Herbert	1977
Tasp A device that induces a current in the pleasure center of the brain, at a distance.	Ringworld	Niven	1970
Tattletale A device is attached to a criminal suspect, ensuring that his whereabouts are always known.	The Game Players of Titan	Dick	1963
TBR (Talk Between Robots) Circuit A special means of communications used by robots to speak with each other.	The Midas Plague	Pohl	1954
Teaching Chair No-frills teaching machine.	Rammer	Niven	1991
Teaching Machine A helmet placed on the head focuses illimitable knowledge into even the head of an earth man.	The Return of the Murians	Schachner	1936
Teakettle A standard rocket (uses hydrogen as a booster to leave the atmosphere).	Double Star	Heinlein	1956
TechnoCore A group of artificial intelligences with vast resources and the entirety of human dataspheres to access.	Hyperion	Simmons	1989
Tectogenetic Deliberate manipulation of genes to produce unique species.	Crisis in Utopia	Knight	1940
Teddy A very intelligent and highly mobile robotic teddy bear.	Super-Toys Last All Summer Long	Aldiss	1969
Teddy Bear Robot A special toy bear given to every child in the world.	I Always Do What Teddy Says	Harrison	1965
Teep Rod A device that gathers the thoughts of an individual.	Galactic Pot-Healer	Dick	1969
Telaudiogram An interplanetary communication method.	The World With A Thousand Moons	Hamilton	1942
Telautograph First fictional reference to a fax machine.	Ralph 124c 41 +	Gernsback	1911
Tele-Audiovized Meeting Teleconferencing done right.	Exiles of the Moon	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Telebook A book made available in text on a television screen.	The Fun They Had	Asimov	1951
Telechart An interactive metal plate upon which were displayed celestial objects for interstellar navigation.	Crashing Suns	Hamilton	1928
Telechronometer A watch that synchronizes itself to a remote source.	Blowups Happen	Heinlein	1940
Telectroscope A much better telescope than yours.	Islands of Space	Campbell	1931
Teledar Three-dimensional television.	The Jester	Tenn	1951
Telelubricator Makes any surface or substance perfectly frictionless.	The Exhalted	de Camp	1940
Telemedicine Apparatus First reference to a device that allows physicians to examine or aid patients at a distance.	The Machine Stops	Forster	1909
Tele-Motor-Coasters Powered skates for personal transportation.	Ralph 124c 41 +	Gernsback	1911
Teleoperated Beetle Car A remotely-operated robotic vehicle that permitted telepresence.	Cities in Flight	Blish	1957
Teleoperated Lab Robot A robot is used to conduct experiments in an environment too extreme for humans.	Cities in Flight	Blish	1957
Teleoperated Robot Surrogate A robot that is entirely controlled remotely by a person who sees with the point of view of the robot.	The Robot and the Lady	Wellman	1938
Telepadion Instructor A device that places an entire sensory experience directly into the brain.	An Adventure on Eros	Haggard	1931
Telepath Transmitter A device for long distance communication that makes use of telepathy.	Agent of Vega	Schmitz	1949
Telepathic Transmitter (Telep-transmitter) A device using living alien tissue to transmit your thoughts.	We Can Remember It For You Wholesale	Dick	1966
Telephone Funnel A kind of two-way public loudspeaker.	The Messiah of the Cylinder	Rousseau	1917
Telephonic Music Room Places where a person could go, at any time, to share in musical performances happening at some distance away.	Looking Backward	Bellamy	1888
Telephonoscope A device that effectively transmits pictures and sound over long distances.	Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century)	Robida	1882
Telephot A device that combined the functions of telephone and television; a phone with a screen.	Ralph 124c 41 +	Gernsback	1911
Telephotography Sending pictures over a distance, displaying them on a vast screen.	The Cosmic Cloud	Burgel	1931
Tele-Photophonic Attachment A device that permits a telephone funnel to see as well as hear.	The Messiah of the Cylinder	Rousseau	1917
Telepomp (Matter Transmission) A device that transmitted matter from one place to another.	The Man Without a Body	Mitchell	1877
Telepresence Bulldozer A bulldozer on the Moon that is operated remotely by a driver on Earth.	Oath of Fealty	Pournelle (w/L. Niven)	1981
Teleprinter A device that printed out a copy of today's newspaper.	Four-Day Planet	Piper	1961
Teleradio Control (Hand Flash) A device that can call a vehicle to a driver; it drives itself in a near-autonomous fashion to the caller.	Exiles of the Moon	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Teleray Destruction over great distances.	Cosmic Teletype	Jacobi	1938
Telescreen Very early use of the idea of using technology to monitor human activity at a distance.	1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)	Orwell	1948
Tele-Screen A display screen for live events.	After Armageddon	Flagg	1932
Telescribe Creates a written record of distress signals and other reports.	A Question of Salvage	Jameson	1939
Telesolidograph Projects three-dimensional images at great distances.	Gather, Darkness!	Leiber	1943
Telespectroscope Device for searching for habitable (Earth-like) planets.	Cosmic Quest	Hamilton	1936
Telestereo A disk, upon which the projected image of the distant sender appears.	Crashing Suns	Hamilton	1928
Teleview A device for seeing at a distance.	The Phantom Teleview	Olsen	1929
Television Sheet A large, flat screen television set.	The Threat of the Robot	Keller	1929
Televisiophone A device that combines picture with sound for personal communication.	Islands of Space	Campbell	1931
Televisor A viewing screen.	The Phantom Teleview	Olsen	1929
Telucid A holographic projector.	If The Sun Died	Starzl	1931
Temporal Paradox The paradoxical idea that making changes in the past results in changes in the present.	The Toy	Berry	1954
Temporary Quarters Device used to separate a large interior space in an off-planet satellite into various living spaces.	Neuromancer	Gibson	1984
Tensile Memory Polarized Matter The same piece of material can take pre-determined shapes.	Babel-17	Delany	1966
Tentacle Machines Enormous robots, cylindrical of body, tentacular of arms, autonomous of brain, sinister of intent.	The Metal Giants	Hamilton	1926
Terminator Zone The area between solar illumination and shade.	Exiles of the Moon	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Terrafoam Dorm Building Maximum people in minimum space.	Manna	Brain	2002
Terraforming The process of modifying a planetary surface to resemble those of an ideal earth; affects the entire biosphere.	Collision Orbit	Williamson	1942
Terrene Pertaining to the Earth.	An Adventure in Futurity	Smith	1931
Tesseract House A house built in the shape of a four-dimensional figure.	-And He Built A Crooked House	Heinlein	1940
Test Box A remote-controlled device for capturing small objects from open space.	The Devil's Pocket	Hardart	1940
Tether Space Station A station in two parts, separated by a one hundred mile tether.	Tank Farm Dynamo	Brin	1983
Tetrahedron Interference Projector Projects a field of force around the Solar System, bending the light of stars to make them seem more distant.	The Great Illusion	Garth	1938
The Book of the Machine The only book needed for life in the vast Machine.	The Machine Stops	Forster	1909
The Cosmic Express A means of transmitting matter wirelessly.	The Cosmic Express	Williamson	1930
The Dip A device that randomly dredges up things from the past... or the future.	The Meddler	Dick	1954
The Hub A large space resort consisting of inhabitable bubbles in a metal framework.	Worlds of Origin	Vance	1958
The Krang An enormous musical instrument (or weapon).	The Tar-Aiym Krang	Foster	1972
The Machine A single vast contrivance that supplied all the needs of the world's millions of solitary inhabitants.	The Machine Stops	Forster	1909
The Machine (M) An autonomous robot able to alter its appearance and functionality at will.	The Unreconstructed M	Dick	1957
The Machines A few of these can run a planetary economy.	The Evitable Conflict	Asimov	1950
The Shed Enormous building needed to assemble giant space craft or space stations.	Space Tug	Leinster	1953
The Sleep Use of a special technique to lessen the supplies required for long space voyages.	Tani of Ekkis	Reeves	1930
The Terror An amazing vehicle capable of attaining tremendous speeds - in many different ways.	Master of the World	Verne	1904
The Twonky A robotic device from the future, constructed to look like a 1940's radio cabinet.	The Twonky	Padgett	1942
The Veldt A nursery that comes alive for the viewer.	The Illustrated Man	Bradbury	1951
Theater Seat Indicators Vacant seats are clearly shown.	Flamingo: A Drama of A.D. 1950	Heller	1930
Thermalarm Relays Detects objects by their heat radiation, so space craft can maneuver around them.	Collision Orbit	Williamson	1942
Thermalite A transparent material that allows almost no heat to escape.	Planet of Eternal Night	Campbell	1939
Thermatite Pure energy fuel mined on asteroids.	Jurisdiction	Schachner	1941
Thermide A chemical which, added to water, boiled and sterilized it instantly.	Parasite Planet	Weinbaum	1935
Thermlectrium An alloy that turns heat directly into electricity.	Blindness	Campbell	1935
Thermodyne Heat Ray Device focuses, and projects, a heat beam.	A Brand New World	Cummings	1942
Thigh Grips Special chair feature for space ships undergoing accelerations.	The Power Planet	Leinster	1931
Thionite A deadly drug.	Galactic Patrol	Smith	1937
Third Eye An output device that uses the skin of the user.	Daemon	Suarez	2006
Thorsen Memory Tube Computer component that allows a machine to learn through experience.	The Door Into Summer	Heinlein	1956
Thought Coil (Machine Intelligence) Specially designed hardware that imparts intelligence to machines.	The Revolt of the Machines	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Thought Pattern Divination Attempting to construct the thoughts of a person by imitating their actions.	The Houses of Iszm	Vance	1954
Thought Screen A material screen that is worn by the user, upon which are projected the mental images of the user.	The Emperor of the Stars	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Thought-receptor Vote-counting Machine That's one way to do a plebiscite.	If The Sun Died	Starzl	1931
Thought-Record Helmet A wearable history book.	Menace From Vega	Randall	1958
Thought-Screen A device that prevents other people from taking over control of your thoughts and mind.	Gray Lensman	Smith	1942
Threat Team (of sf writers) Gathering together a group of science fiction writers to try to predict what will happen, or to understand an unknown threat.	Footfall	Niven (w/J. Pournelle)	1985
Three Generation Work (Century Piece) An artwork created by three consecutive generations of artists, in exactly one century.	The Sub-Standard Sardines	Vance	1949
Three Laws of Robotics (Rules of Robotics) The original formulation of Asimov's laws of robotics.	Runaround	Asimov	1942
Thumper A short stake with a spring-driven clapper at one end; used to call sandworms.	Dune	Herbert	1965
Tickler Clears smog and saves the residue for later use.	Eurema's Dam	Lafferty	1972
Tiered Internet The idea that some forms of Internet network traffic should be given priority over others.	The Shockwave Rider	Brunner	1975
Tiersian Therapy A therapeutic discipline in which the patient chooses a character from a book and then attempts to be that character.	Red Orc's Revenge	Farmer	1991
Tight-Beam A method of communication that uses a very narrowly-focused stream of energy.	Skylark Three	Smith	1930
Tik-Talker A method of scrambling spoken speech for encoded transmission.	The Sign of the Tiger	Nourse (w/Meyer)	1958
Tik-Tok A mechanical man.	Ozma of Oz	Baum	1907
Time Capsule A hollow block of metal, impervious to the elements, used by time travelers to send messages to the future.	Millennium	Varley	1983
Time Dingbat Nickname for a time machine; used for a kind of WPA-like program for the past.	The Computer Connection	Bester	1974
Time Dredge A device that scoops up material from the past, and returns it to the present.	Time Dredge	Arthur	1942
Time Line The sequence of events leading up to, and past, this moment.	Time Wants A Skeleton	Rocklynne	1941
Time Line Time seen linearly, as a distinguishable series of events.	Liners of Time	Fearn	1935
Time Loop A series of events repeats, the stream crosses over itself.	The Time Entity	Binder	1936
Time Machine A device allowing the rider to move freely in the temporal dimension, just as we ordinarily do in the two physical dimensions normal to gravity.	The Time Machine	Wells	1895
Time Quake Too much energy applied to a time-fault may have started this.	Breakfast at Twilight	Dick	1954
Time Scoop Retrieved objects from other points in time.	Paycheck	Dick	1953
Time Stream The total sequence of events considered as a kind of flow.	Time Stream	Taine	1931
Time Tunnel A gateway into the past.	Rule 18	Simak	1938
Timebroker A person who traded in the commodity of other people's time.	Shuteye for the Timebroker	Di Filippo	2006
Timeout The part of a Skyrene's life that is spent in Warm Sleep travel between Earth and the destination planet.	War Dogs	Bear	2014
Timepress A device that makes time go more quickly in a limited area.	Millennium	Varley	1983
Timeslip When humans keep time on Mars, they must work with the extra forty minutes in each day.	Red Mars	Robinson	1992
Time-Space Television A device for seeing into the past.	Water-Bound World	Vincent	1932
Time-Telespectroscope. See other time-travelers.	The Exile of Time	Cummings	1931
Time-Warping Construct A device that appears to cause alternate worlds or paraworld.	Lies, Inc.	Dick	1964
Tin Cabby (Flying Robotic Taxi) An autonomously controlled flying taxi cab.	Cities in Flight	Blish	1957
Tiny Atomic-Power Drive Unit A very small power generator that is atomic powered.	The Brain Pirates	Campbell	1938
Tiny Nuclear Generator A complete nuclear-based generator of power no bigger than a walnut.	Foundation and Empire	Asimov	1952
Tleilaxu Eyes (Metal Eyes) Tleilaxu eye surgery replaces natural eyeballs damaged or destroyed.	Dune Messiah	Herbert	1969
TMA-1 The Tycho Monolith.	2001: A Space Odyssey	Clarke	1968
Toaster A handheld beam weapon.	Accidental Flight	Wallace	1952
Todos Santos Independency A city enclosed in a single building.	Oath of Fealty	Pournelle (w/L. Niven)	1981
Toll Door An apartment door that operates on a cash-only basis.	Ubik	Dick	1969
Toner Dead bits of nanomachines.	The Diamond Age	Stephenson	1995
Tongue Mouse A pointing device using input from the tongue.	Quantico	Bear	2007
Tongueprint Verification A device that verifies the unique print of the tongue against a a database for identification purposes.	Fleet of Worlds	Niven (w/E.M. Lerner)	2007
Toothbud Transplant Implanted teeth that mimic the dentition of other species.	Neuromancer	Gibson	1984
Toposcope A special helmet used in a form of sleep teaching.	Cities in Flight	Blish	1957
Torch The orifice from which issued the reaction mass of an atomic powered space craft.	Farmer in the Sky	Heinlein	1950
Torchship A spaceship capable of high acceleration.	Sky Lift	Heinlein	1953
Torpoon Clever portmanteau of "torpedo" and "harpoon", an underwater whaling craft.	Seed of the Arctic Ice	Winter	1932
Total Environmental and Mental Simulator An AI that could create and discard whole branches of science in pursuing the answer to a problem.	Crown of Infinity	Faucette	1968
Touch Tablet Another name for a wireless Tablet PC.	Darwin's Children	Bear	2003
Tourist Rocket A cheap, unpleasant way to do space travel.	The Space Merchants	Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)	1952
Towel A simple scrap of cloth with surprisingly many uses.	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Adams	1979
Tower of Glass An enormous glass tower built to communicate outside the solar system.	Tower of Glass	Silverberg	1970
Town In One Building This is the basic idea behind an arcology, or other single structure that is intended to provide living space and mall.	When the Sleeper Wakes	Wells	1899
Toy Testing Dummy A child-sized device used to test suspect toys.	War Game	Dick	1959
Trace Web A small, handheld device that contacts (and even instantiates) the larger network.	Souvenir	Dick	1954
Tracer-Bird A prototype surveillance drone; a mechanical bird.	Changeling	Zelazny	1980
Tracing Glasses Locate criminals by using glasses to pick up signals from special transmitters.	Case Closed (Detective Conan)	Aoyama	1994
Tracked Vehicle A heavily armored vehicle, typical of those in use, with a remarkable agility.	The Dosadi Experiment	Herbert	1977
Tracking Bracelet A security device armed with explosives.	Shadowspeer	Clayton	1990
Tractatruck Combination tractor and truck used for hauling and exploration.	The Moon is Hell	Campbell	1950
Traction City Cities re-engineered as enormous, lumbering machines.	Mortal Engines	Reeve	2003
Traction City Gut The area of a Traction City used for taking apart and consuming captured prey cities.	Mortal Engines	Reeve	2003
Tractor Beam A force field used to pull objects.	Spacehounds of IPC	Smith	1931
Tractor Boots Space suit footgear that has atom-driven caterpillar treads.	Magician of Dream Valley	Gallun	1938
Traffic Control Camera An automated camera system that photographs license plates as cars move past on a road system.	Methuselah's Children	Heinlein	1941
Traffic Lane Discharger A device that electrically shocked vehicles whose drivers attempted to evade traffic control devices.	Sagramanda	Foster	2006
Tramline The line along which hyperspace (instantaneous travel) travel is possible.	The Mote in God's Eye	Niven (w/J. Pournelle)	1974
Tranquilizing Gum Chewing gum with a tranquilizing agent.	Ubik	Dick	1969
Transcriber A automated transcriptionist - a machine which perfectly translates human speech into words on paper.	Second Foundation	Asimov	1953
Transdermal Drug Capsule A drug capsule that delivers medication by being placed on the skin.	Vulcan's Hammer	Dick	1960
Transdress A transparent dress upon which thousands of patterns may be projected.	The California Voodoo Game	Niven (w/S. Barnes)	1992
Transfer Cable Move between two ships in space.	Dead Star Station	Williamson	1933
Transfer Refuge A portable environment chamber, able to support unique and different lifeforms.	Hotel Cosmos	Gallun	1938
Transkin A hooded protective suit worn on Venus.	Parasite Planet	Weinbaum	1935
Translation Program A computer program that translates speech from one language to another, in real time, to aid in conversation.	Deep Eddy	Sterling	1993
Translatophone A device that performs mechanical translation of one language into another.	My Translatophone	Stockton	1901
Translator Discs Wearable devices that wirelessly connected to a speech translation computer.	Ringworld	Niven	1970
Transmat A teleportation device.	Tower of Glass	Silverberg	1970
Transmit Camera A camera that both takes pictures and uploads it directly to a news station.	Four-Day Planet	Piper	1961
Transmit-Paper Paper form with a built-in capability to transmit the information written with a stylus to a remote computer network.	The Godmakers	Herbert	1972
Transmitter Eyes Closed circuit cameras that provided sight and sound to remote viewers of the Courtarena who wish to remain anonymous.	The Dosadi Experiment	Herbert	1977
Transo Teleportation of objects and personnel, used as the basis for "Trading Post" stores across the planet.	Time is the Simplest Thing	Simak	1961
Trans-Oceanic Rocket Also, a rocket-plane.	The Worlds of If	Weinbaum	1935
Trans-Oceanic Rocket Ship Rocket-propelled airplanes making short work of long trips on Earth.	Berlin to New York in One Hour	Valier	1930
Transparent Aluminum Invisible light steel.	The Space Hermit	Newton	1929
Transparent Car Roof You can see through the roof of the car.	Sinister Barrier	Russell	1939
Transparent Dome Helmet A spacesuit helmet that can be seen through.	The Man from the Atom	Wertenbaker	1926
Transparent Flat Panel Display A fifty-inch flat panel display that is (or can be) transparent.	The Shape of Things To Come	Wells	1936
Transparent Overalls Perfect for prisoners, because nothing can be concealed.	The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge	Harrison	1970
Transparent Platisplasm Cage A replacement framework for a body joint - in this case, the shoulder.	Babel-17	Delany	1966
Transparent Spherical Ship A huge sphere of quartz housing a platform for space use.	The Emperor of the Stars	Schachner (w. AL Zagat)	1931
Transparent, Frictionless Coating An absolutely frictionless, impenetrable coating.	Way Station	Simak	1963
Transport Walkers Multilegged transport vehicles big enough to carry one person.	A Little Further Up The Fox...	Ewing	1987
Trans-Space Transmission A curious method of communication between worlds.	The Moon Moth	Vance	1976
Trantor A city that covers the entire surface of the planet.	Foundation	Asimov	1951
Travel-Rug A rug that conveyed you around your house.	Roll Out The Rolov!	Anvil	1953
Treatment of Extramundane Aborigines Laws for aliens on their own planet.	Symbiotica	Russell	1943
Tree-Grown Wood The natural product, obtained by cutting down a living tree.	Gravy Planet	Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth)	1952
Treeship A single, enormous tree grown as a spacecraft.	Hyperion	Simmons	1989
Tri-D A remarkable pesticide.	The Morning of the Day They Did It	White	1950
Trimagniscope A device that produced a usable cross-sectional image of any part of an object.	Inherit the Stars	Hogan	1977
Trion Library An early visualization of the Internet.	The Magellanic Cloud	Lem	1955
Trip to Mars A voyage across space to the planet Mars.	Across the Zodiac	Greg	1880
Trip-Box A teleportation device.	Eye of Cat	Zelazny	1982
Triple Airlock Special device to protect against extremely corrosive atmospheres.	Uller Uprising	Piper	1952
Tripod An enormous metallic robot.	The War of the Worlds	Wells	1898
Tri-Type Record A printed card that stores information about a person, including a perfect three-dimensional representation.	The Houses of Iszm	Vance	1954
Trode-Net	Mona Lisa Overdrive	Gibson	1988
Trolling Tether Cable Simple fishing technique applied to moving cargo off-planet.	Atom Drive	Fontenay	1956
True-Vu Lenses (Goggles) Lenses that are worn as goggles, allowing the user to both see and record what is being viewed.	Earth	Brin	1990
Truffle Skins Genetically unique skins are the common currency; their special genetic makeup makes forgery impossible.	The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch	Dick	1965
Tru-Mem Systems Organic process of recalling personal events.	We Can Remember It For You Wholesale	Dick	1966
Trumpaphone A loud, brassy instrument.	The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years	Wilcox	1940
Trumps Magical Tarot cards that permitted both communication and transportation.	Nine Princes in Amber	Zelazny	1970
Truth Meter A lie detector.	The Star Beast	Heinlein	1954
Tube Rack A hotel consisting of a set of stacked tube-like living spaces.	Solstice	Kelly	1985
Tubecar A pneumatic tube that carries people.	The Faceless Men	Zagat	1948
Tubular Field of Force Can pull an object through space.	The Cometeers	Williamson	1936
Tubular Space-Gangway A means of traversing the short distance between two ships in space.	The Star-Roamers	Hamilton	1933
Tug A small space vehicle, used to provide a push or pull to objects floating in space without propulsion systems.	Neuromancer	Gibson	1984
Tumblebug A monocycle; a motorcycle that balances on a single wheel.	The Roads Must Roll	Heinlein	1940
Tuned-Laser Decontamination Process to destroy foreign biomolecules within the body.	Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax)	Sawyer	2003
Tune-Maker Automated music production.	The World Jones Made	Dick	1956
Turnover The point in a torchship's trajectory when it must flip over and point its fiery tail toward its destination to decelerate.	Off the Beam	Smith	1944
TW-55 Spy Conscious control of facial characteristics.	Babel-17	Delany	1966
Twing Used in the hold of spaceships to keep articles all together, and to prevent them from floating around in free fall, or falling during periods of acceleration.	Protector	Niven	1973
Twist-Box A device that scrambles your sensory input, providing you with a different kind of experience.	Wetware	Rucker	1988
Twonky A futuristic artifact left by time travelers in the past which, if discovered, could cause a paradox.	Millennium	Varley	1983
Two-Wheeled Car A small passenger vehicle with two centerline wheels.	The Roads Must Roll	Heinlein	1940
Two-Wheeled Ground Car A gyro-stabilized vehicle like an enclosed motorcycle.	First Lensman	Smith	1950

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