01-17-2023, 06:20 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2014
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An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
I was doing some casual adaptations of some science fiction universes and thought it might be fun to compile a sort of thesaurus or glossary of the names various Ultra-Tech concepts go by in other works. In some cases, this is just “restoring the serial numbers” that GURPS has filed off because those works are the source of the concept! In others, there are many names that have been used through the years.
I’ve picked a representative sample below, please add more as you think of them in the same format. One suggestion: don’t be 100% literal; if the idea is the same even if the details vary, it’s safe to include. Feel free to include items from Bio-Tech or Spaceships as well. automed (UT196): autodoc (Known Space) bioroid (BIO26): replicant (Blade Runner), fabricant (Cloud Atlas), doll (Fairyland), azi (Cyteen) cyborg, total (UT27): full-body prosthetic (Ghost in the Shell) disintegrator (UT130): phaser (Star Trek) euphoria machine (UT40): droud (Known Space) force sword (UT166): lightsaber (Star Wars) heavy exoskeleton (UT181): power loader (Aliens) neural interface implant (UT216): cyberbrain (Ghost in the Shell), neural nanonics (The Reality Dysfunction) sensie (UT57): braindance (Cyberpunk), simstim (Neuromancer) vertol (UT229): aerodyne or AV (Cyberpunk) |
01-17-2023, 07:33 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In the UFO
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
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The Ultra-Tech bibliography is the best source for spotting original inspirations, as I generally tried to credit most there. You can find, for example, the earliest identifiable "gauss" guns by that name in the Stainless Steel Rat series. (Travellers' meson gun, here in UT a "ghost particle beam," first appears in Blish's Cities in Flight books, though the C-Plus Gun of the Berserker series is also quite similar in function if not tech; Cities in Flight is also the first time I recall antimatter beams being used for direct attack.) A great deal of GURPS terminology owes itself to GURPS Space, and the author of that equipment list (SJ or William A. Barton) drew heavily on the many novels of Andre Norton for terminology. At the time, SJ Games also had an Andre Norton license, so it was not entirely uncredited! But in her over 50 young-adult novels, which were widely available from the 50s through 70s in libraries everywhere Norton popularized (if not invented) many of the terms common to SF: blaster, stunner, force blade, and so on were all common parlance in her books, and for generations of kids and teens who grew up reading them (my parents read them as bedtime stories)
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01-17-2023, 08:30 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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01-17-2023, 08:35 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
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This term could derive from the "Atom blast" guns in the Captain Future series from Edmond Hamilton (Leigh's husband) a year or two earlier. Captain Future also had "proton pistols" that could be set to stun or lethal. Those were the first weapons with such a capability that I can think of. Previous non-lethal ray guns tended to be "paralysis guns" such as seen in E.E. Smith's Triplanetary.
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Fred Brackin |
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01-17-2023, 08:40 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
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01-17-2023, 08:48 PM | #6 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
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In Xenosaga, the Realians - aka Synths - are bioroids. Quote:
While "Tesla guns" tend to electrocute targets in most media where they show up, I'm fond of interpreting Tesla's "teleforce" as a charged particle beam.
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01-17-2023, 08:59 PM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2014
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
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01-17-2023, 09:02 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Sep 2014
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01-17-2023, 09:40 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
robot (UT26 and elsewhere) droids (Star Wars and the In Death novels)
communicator (UT43) pocketphone or phone (Heinlein) computer (UT22) logic (A Logic Named Joe) desk (Ender's Game, actually a tablet/laptop type of computer) night vision contact lenses (UT 60) eyecaps (Starfish, Peter Watts) |
01-17-2023, 09:50 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: An Ultra-Tech Thesaurus
They had these (without a catchy name) in James H. Schmitz' The Demon Breed. I think they were probably the equivalent of bioplastic too.
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Fred Brackin |
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