posted
You remember, of course, the clever solution our favorite author devised for solving the problem of communication between entities travelling faster than light? The Ansible, two crystals that resonate sympathetically no matter how far removed from one another? I'm just wondering if some very smart researchers at MIT were at all influenced by that idea as young readers...
A snippet or two:
>>In a proof of concept demonstration of the technology MIT researchers were able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source seven feet away with no physical connection between the source and the lamp.
>>According to research published on MIT's Web site wireless power transmission that could light a lamp has been theoretically possible for some time. However, the technology up until now has been hamstrung by issues such as line of site requirements between source and destination. As MIT puts it: "One can envision using directed electromagnetic radiation, such as lasers, but this is not very practical and can even be dangerous."
>>MIT has broken the line-of-site requirements. Researchers explain: "WiTricity is based on using coupled resonant objects. Two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently, while interacting weakly with extraneous off-resonant objects."
posted
If you want to see that exact idea in science fiction (power being transmitted like that), you can find it much earlier than OSC's ansible, such as in Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
And Card didn't invent the ansible. He's said over and over again that he borrowed the term and concept. Yes, he's clever. No, he didn't invent it.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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