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Science Fiction Dictionary: Ideas, Terms and Technology
(
4037 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 |
| Wabbler An autonomous underwater robot. |
The Wabbler | Leinster | 1942 |
| WAGD Germ Detector A hand-held biohazard analyzer. |
Quantico | Bear | 2007 |
| Wakeshot An injection designed to bring a person out of sleep to full wakefulness. |
Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Waldo A telefactoring device; also known as the Waldo F. Jones Synchronous Reduplicating Pantograph. |
Waldo | Heinlein | 1942 |
| Walker Wagon Robotic vehicle with a trough-like body and many mechanical legs. |
Farmer in the Sky | Heinlein | 1950 |
| Walking Balloon A means of efficiently traversing rough country. |
In the Deep of Time | Lathrop | 1897 |
| Walking Fort A biomimetic fort based on the model of a centipede. |
The Killing Machine | Vance | 1964 |
| Walking Mill The ultimate combine - giant metal centipede walks through fields, harvesting wheat, threshing, grinding and finally baking bread right in the field. |
Bread Overhead! | Leiber | 1958 |
| Wall in the Air An invisible barrier that protects an entire island or city. |
Rondah, or Thirty-Three Years in a Star | Dieudonné | 1887 |
| Wall Screen A large size display for video, anchored to a wall, or actually forming the wall itself. |
Star of Dreams | Williamson | 1941 |
| Wall-Light The walls of a room provide illumination. |
Foundation and Empire | Asimov | 1952 |
| Wandering Mine A landmine with legs. |
Half the Day is Night | McHugh | 1994 |
| Wandering Sunless Planet A planet that is not bound to a star. |
Dead Hand | Asimov | 1946 |
| Wandering Worlds Planets that are attached to no sun, and roam interstellar space. |
When Worlds Collide | Balmer (w/P. Wylie) | 1932 |
| Wango Wave Energy surge that accompanies the entrance into, and exit from, overdrive outside of normal space. |
Propagandist | Leinster | 1947 |
| War-Balloon (Navigable Aerostat) Enormous dirigible airships used for war. |
The Angel of the Revolution | Griffith | 1893 |
| Warp Drive Traveling across the gap between universes. |
The Tides of Time | Williams | 1940 |
| Warp of Space A fault or pucker in spacetime. |
In 20000 A.D.! | Schachner (w. AL Zagat) | 1930 |
| Warp-Speed Faster than light spaceships. |
Yachting Party | Holden | 1952 |
| WatchdØg (Watchdog) |
WatchdØg | Haldeman | 1972 |
| Watchphone A combination cell phone and wrist watch. |
Islands in the Net | Sterling | 1988 |
| Water Brain Fountain A drinking fountain that locates your mouth, rather than you having to lean down to the spout. |
War Veteran | Dick | 1955 |
| Water Bulb A zero-g way to enjoy water. |
The Space Merchants | Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth) | 1952 |
| Water Bulb A zero-gee dispenser of liquids. |
The Space Merchants | Pohl (w/CM Kornbluth) | 1952 |
| Water From Lunar Gypsum Extracting water (and therefore oxygen, by electrolysis) from apparently dry lunar material. |
The Moon is Hell | Campbell | 1950 |
| Water Pool Cushions Acceleration The use of water to cushion and protect against extreme ship accelerations. |
The Derelicts of Ganymede | Campbell | 1932 |
| Water Repellent Surface A surface that water flows over without sticking at all. |
Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Waterbed (Hydraulic Bed) A bed that uses water instead of springs and stuffing. |
Stranger in a Strange Land | Heinlein | 1961 |
| Watercouch A couch filled with water, rather than springs and cushions. |
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon | Pohl | 1980 |
| Water-Springs Using water to cushion the living space of a spacecraft from the effects of acceleration. |
From the Earth to the Moon | Verne | 1867 |
| Watertube Carries water to and from the catchpockets in a Fremen stillsuit. |
Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Waveform Hypothesis |
Backbeat - A Novel of Physics | Arment | 2004 |
| Way Station A device used to transport individuals across the galaxy. |
Way Station | Simak | 1963 |
| Way Station Materializer By sending impulses that describe a creature from star to star, transport across the galaxy is accomplished. |
Way Station | Simak | 1963 |
| Weapon Sound Tracker Locate an enemy by the sound of gunfire. |
Quantico | Bear | 2007 |
| Wearable White-Noise Generator A device worn when the wearer preferred not to be the subject of audio recordings. |
Idoru | Gibson | 1996 |
| Wearables Slang for 'wearable computer.' |
Fast Times At Fairmont High | Vinge | 2001 |
| Wearables (Wearable Computers) Computers and peripherals that use textiles for electronic circuitry. |
Rainbows End | Vinge | 2006 |
| Weary Deep-Sleep Phildickian old-sleep. |
Lies, Inc. | Dick | 1964 |
| Weather in Space The idea that weather concepts could be applied to interplanetary space. |
Around the Universe | Cummings | 1927 |
| Weather Integrator An entire technology for controlling the weather. |
Methuselah's Children | Heinlein | 1941 |
| Weather Machine A device for controlling the weather. |
Slaves of Mercury | Schachner | 1932 |
| Weather Pod Imperial technology available to planetologists only. |
Dune: House Harkonnen | Herbert | 2001 |
| Web (Data Network) An information network. |
Souvenir | Dick | 1954 |
| Webcast A broadcast accomplished over a data network. |
Armageddon Blues | Moran | 1987 |
| Webeye Communications device with a camera, microphone, zoom lens, projector, etc.; can be sprayed on. |
The Ringworld Throne | Niven | 1996 |
| Webfoam Cradle A means of softening the landing for humans inside spacecraft. |
The Man in the Maze | Silverberg | 1969 |
| Websight A way of visualizing the Internet internally. |
WWW: Wake | Sawyer | 2009 |
| Week Trees Specially engineered bonsai that could grow in a week, instead of decades. |
Wetware | Rucker | 1988 |
| Weightless Work Area A small workspace within which there is no gravitational pull. |
Galactic Pot-Healer | Dick | 1969 |
| Weightlessness The state experienced in free fall; a space traveler's weight is apparently reduced to zero. |
From the Earth to the Moon | Verne | 1867 |
| Weightlessness (Kepler) The notion that there could be a location with zero effective gravity. |
Somnium (The Dream) | Kepler | 1634 |
| Weightlessness in Space This appears to be the first description of the idea of weightlessness in space. |
The Man in the Moone | Godwin | 1638 |
| Weight-Shoes Devices intended to make it easier to walk on celestial bodies with weaker gravity. |
The World With A Thousand Moons | Hamilton | 1942 |
| Welton Cube High-density storage device. |
Time Enough For Love | Heinlein | 1973 |
| Wende A change, a turning point, a reversal of culture and politics. |
Deep Eddy | Sterling | 1993 |
| Whale Waldo An electromechanical whale "suit" that obeys and amplifies your body's motions. |
Sundiver | Brin | 1979 |
| Wheelchair Space Station A home in space. |
Waldo | Heinlein | 1942 |
| Whisper Line A means of communication between prisoners held in wide separation. |
The Stars My Destination | Bester | 1956 |
| Whispering Gallery A means of communication in specifically shaped spaces. |
Journey to the Center of the Earth | Verne | 1864 |
| Whologram Presents a realistic illusion. |
Super-Toys Last All Summer Long | Aldiss | 1969 |
| Wholographik Hologram-style picture. |
Stand on Zanzibar | Brunner | 1968 |
| Whoopee Drive Spacecraft propulsion. |
Space Angel | Roberts | 1979 |
| Whuffie A system in which one's actions, as perceived by others, directly procure the necessities of life; reputation-based currency. |
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom | Doctorow | 2003 |
| Wildcode A vast, actual desert comprised of nanites, nanomachines. |
The Fractal Prince | Rajaniemi | 2012 |
| Wimp A special-purpose body; grown without personality, but physically intact. |
Millennium | Varley | 1983 |
| Wimp Vault Lots of spare bodies. |
Millennium | Varley | 1983 |
| Windmill Mast Enclosed machinery in large masts powers ships. |
A Journey In Other Worlds | Astor IV | 1894 |
| Window Wavelength Display's that provide 'views' as if they were windows. |
Super-Toys Last All Summer Long | Aldiss | 1969 |
| Window-Cleaner Robots Robots that perform the task of cleaning and polishing transparent surfaces. |
Rendezvous With Rama | Clarke | 1972 |
| Window-Willie A robot that cleaned windows by electrostatic repulsion of dust and grime. |
The Door Into Summer | Heinlein | 1956 |
| Wind-Suncatcher A combination wind turbine and solar energy gathering device. |
Down on the Farm | Stokes | 1937 |
| Windtrap A device which precipitates water from the air for use by people. |
Dune | Herbert | 1965 |
| Wine Pellets Fine wine in convenient, dried form. |
Redmask of the Outlands | Schachner | 1934 |
| Winged Rocket Shuttle A sort of plane that briefly reached space while traveling between points on a planet. |
Between Planets | Heinlein | 1951 |
| Win-Reducing Gambling Circuit Circuitry in a game that detects winning strategies and then alters the game to make winning more difficult. |
Return Match | Dick | 1967 |
| Wintermute An artificially intelligent computer system. |
Neuromancer | Gibson | 1984 |
| Wire Act A person with special hardware modifications that allow him or her to create music by bodily movement. |
Freezone | Shirley | 1985 |
| Wire Gun Shoots a length of constricting wire. |
Shadow Gold | Cummings | 1936 |
| Wired Glove Interface Display A large screen display that uses a wired glove interface. |
Minority Report (Movie) | Spielberg | 2002 |
| Wire-Gun Device that aids movement in microgravity. |
Mobile Suit Gundam | Tomino | 1979 |
| Wireless Access Point Infrastructure that provides power and wireless communication. |
Men Like Gods | Wells | 1923 |
| Wireless Wrist Intercom A portable wireless intercom, worn on the wrist. |
The Shape of Things To Come | Wells | 1936 |
| Womb Room The ultimate ship's bridge. |
A World Out of Time | Niven | 1976 |
| Word Tab A feature of an e-paper document; touch the word tab and get more information. |
Cantata 140 | Dick | 1964 |
| Workplace Distancing A computer application that arranges that workers never encounter each other, to reduce gossiping and wasted time. |
Manna | Brain | 2002 |
| Worldcraft Bubble An incredibly detailed mechanical simulation of a world. |
The Trouble With Bubbles | Dick | 1953 |
| Worldweb All Thing Network connects billions of people in real time. |
Hyperion | Simmons | 1989 |
| Wreck-Pack An agglomeration of wrecked spacecraft drawn together by mutual gravitational attraction in the 'dead area' of the solar system. |
The Sargasso of Space | Hamilton | 1931 |
| Wrist Command A wearable communications device; the logical endpoint of mobile computing. |
Tides of Light | Benford | 1989 |
| Wrist Search Display A wearable device that uses its own search beam to view scenes close by. |
A Matter of Size | Bates | 1934 |
| Wristband Viewer A device for viewing aerial surveillance images that fits on your wrist. |
Changeling | Zelazny | 1980 |
| Wristpad A tablet computer worn on the wrist. |
New York 2140 | Robinson | 2017 |
| Wunderland Treatymaker A weapon based on a power mining technique - a bit more advanced than a shovel. |
Ringworld Engineers | Niven | 1980 |
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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