# Favourite throw-away ideas in Science Fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2005, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216 "2005-07-19T23:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/21 "2005-07-20T15:05:57Z")
> [@Ithaka](#): > > Just from vague memory doesn’t it have to extend the same distance past geosynchronous orbit, so as to balance? Not necessarily. The center of mass needs to be at geosynchronous orbit, and the easiest way to manage that is to put a large mass just beyond geosynchronous distance, and minimize the mass of the cable. If the cable extends out too far, I think Keplerian shear (just a fancy way to say that stuff farther from the planet orbits slower) starts to cause problems. ---
**Author:** ![Ithaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Ithaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ithaka)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/22 "2005-07-20T15:10:57Z")
Thanks people, I’d remembered something about balancing but obviously it’s the mass not the length. ---
**Author:** ![keeper0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/23 "2005-07-20T15:12:18Z")
I think it was a Kurt Vonnegut story that had a democracy where the President was selected from the population by random lottery. The only way to get disqualified from the lottery was to actually want to be President. The country worked best, apparently, when the draftee was carried into office kicking and screaming. During various presidential elections, I have thought fondly of this idea. Then I watch an episode of Jerry Springer, and my opinion changes back. Hijack: I understand how extending a space elevator beyond geo-synchronous orbit can cancel the vertical forces on it, but how do you deal with the massive moment about its center of gravity that results? ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/24 "2005-07-20T15:22:00Z")
> [@Ithaka](#): > > Just from vague memory doesn’t it have to extend the same distance past geosynchronous orbit, so as to balance? Yes, but unless I’m misremembering the book, the beanstalk in _Red Mars_ broke below the center point. Everything below that point fell, everything above it was flung off into solar orbit. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/25 "2005-07-20T16:05:48Z")
> [@keeper0](#): > > I think it was a Kurt Vonnegut story that had a democracy where the President was selected from the population by random lottery. The only way to get disqualified from the lottery was to actually want to be President. One of Arthur C. Clarke’s novels uses that idea as a throw-away. The other ways to get disqualified are to be above or below certain ages, or to commit a crime. There’s a nice little tidbit about the current president having considered that last one. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/26 "2005-07-20T16:07:50Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The early John Varley stories were filled with this sort of thing. Some small throwaways included: > > [ul] > [li]Routine sex change operations; people would change their sex like changing clothes[/li][li]A kid wandering into an operating room and poking a finger into a man’s brain (the top of the head had been removed and he was conscious)[/li][li]The teacher scolding the kid, saying it was impolite and that in the past, there were things called “germs.”[/li][li]A woman needs to change her appearance, so she takes a screwdriver to her face and turns some adjusting screws to change her cheekbones.[/li][/ul] > > He later expanded on some of these, but in the beginning, they were tossed in, often as side issues to the main story. This sounds like Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, the Public TV movie that ended up as MST3K fodder. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/27 "2005-07-20T16:42:03Z")
> [@AndrewL](#): > > Yes, but unless I’m misremembering the book, the beanstalk in _Red Mars_ broke below the center point. Everything below that point fell, everything above it was flung off into solar orbit. Actually, I’m pretty sure the beanstalk extended past the geosynchronous point, but not as far again as the distance between the geosynch point. There was an asteroid/station “ballast” at the end. The beanstalk wasn’t destroyed in mid-length, but at the point where the stalk connected to the asteroid. I thought it was really cool that when the connection was destroyed, the asteroids’s motion caused it to be flung off away from Mars. There were people onboard, and they had to rig up some kind of system to eventually decelerate the station and return to the inner solar system. But this took them a year or two to do. ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/28 "2005-07-20T16:56:46Z")
John Varley wrote the original story _Overdrawn at the Memory Bank_ in 1976. Of the PBS production, he wrote “I don’t think it was entirely successful, but I enjoyed it as it was the first of my works to be dramatized,” in the introduction to the story in his book [_The John Varley Reader: Thirty Years of Short Fiction_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441011950/qid=1121878024/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-4935841-2681419?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/29 "2005-07-20T16:58:52Z")
> [@Papermache Prince](#): > > John Varley wrote the original story _Overdrawn at the Memory Bank_ in 1976. Of the PBS production, he wrote “I don’t think it was entirely successful, but I enjoyed it as it was the first of my works to be dramatized,” in the introduction to the story in his book [_The John Varley Reader: Thirty Years of Short Fiction_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441011950/qid=1121878024/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-4935841-2681419?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). Ah, Danke. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/30 "2005-07-20T17:05:22Z")
I loved Vernor Vinge’s concept of an galaxy-spanning Internet where races who have little or no prospect of communicating with each other face to face even with FTL because of the vast distances involved, were nonetheless able to chat with one another in real-time. The functioned as a sort of Greek chorus to the action of the story and added a great deal of dramatic power to “A Fire Upon The Deep.” Also, Iain Banks’ concept of a “knife missile.” It’s basically a small, self-propelled AI of slightly greater than human intelligence which can move extremely fast and slice holes in people in a split second. It’s self-directed and intelligent. Basically, you + a knife missile vs. any modern army = one dead army. The soldiers die one at a time, but they die so fast it makes no different, and the knife missile can be very selective in picking out targets, being sentient and all. ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216/31 "2005-07-20T18:07:52Z")
> [@](#): > > I loved Vernor Vinge’s concept of an galaxy-spanning Internet where races who have little or no prospect of communicating with each other face to face even with FTL because of the vast distances involved, were nonetheless able to chat with one another in real-time. The functioned as a sort of Greek chorus to the action of the story and added a great deal of dramatic power to “A Fire Upon The Deep.” Gaah, that was almost exactly my latest “really great idea for a sci-fi short story” I knew someone must have beaten me to it, if you think about it there is really no need for two sufficently advanced spacefaring societys to contact each other physically at all as long as they have ftl communication. > [@](#): > > Also, Iain Banks’ concept of a “knife missile.” It’s basically a small, self-propelled AI of slightly greater than human intelligence which can move extremely fast and slice holes in people in a split second. It’s self-directed and intelligent. Basically, you + a knife missile vs. any modern army = one dead army. The soldiers die one at a time, but they die so fast it makes no different, and the knife missile can be very selective in picking out targets, being sentient and all. I really think Iain Banks is the master of this sort of stuff, all the technology in his books is so usefully and sensibly exploited. And let us not forget the Lazy Gun (although it isn’t exactly mentioned as a casual aside). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-throw-away-ideas-in-science-fiction/313216.md?page=1)