In Sixth Column, Heinlein posited a hitherto-undiscovered set of physical forces (magneto-gravitic and electro-gravitic) that can be used to put up buildings unassisted. It can also be used to make a racially selective death ray. Classic Golden Age phlebotinum!
Zelazny has about twenty awesome ideas in Creatures of Light and Darkness; maybe my favorite is the description of duels between time-travelers: first there are the two facing off against each other, then they flicker and it’s a fight between two sets of twins; then they flicker again, and again, and it’s 19 versions of Set vs. 21 of the Iron General; then again and again with the numbers increasing geometrically.
In the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Kirk is part of a pilot project to replace traditional communicators with sensceivers, implants which allow one to have a communicator-like conversation with someone without need of a device. In effect, it created two-way, closed-circuit aural telepathy. But IIRC, Kirk hated it because it resulted in making you look like you were standing around talking to yourself. Needless to say, it’s what I think of whenever I see some Bluetoother talking to no one.
The sense does seem reasonable and feasible as described, I just don’t have any idea how it would manifest itself. I suppose you are saying that because the odors travel in a straight line they provide data about position and shape of their emitter. But unlike light, odor manifests itself in areas that have nothing to do with shape … armpit,s for example, would register as “brighter” or “bigger” or something like it on the human body, with genitals and butts likewise magnified. Interesting to think about, as you say.
Interestingly, the domestication process pretty much was a process of breeding wildcats (and wolves) so they stayed perpetually kittens (puppies). But for the most part, it seems to have had the opposite effect: Most domesticated animals are dumber than their wild equivalent.
Not a metaphor. The answer, when it comes, blows the reader away. It’s logical, astonishing, and horrifying all at once. Then the next chapter ups the ante…
In Heinlein’s “Beyond This Horizon” one of the (equivalent of) Senators can read a book and pay full attention to the meeting.
I don’t recall that from “Revolt”.
The famous “two-brain” story is Van Vogt’s “Null-A” I think (I haven’t read that one though) - so the same “reading a book and listening to a discussion” bit might be in there.
I’d say that this is because humans tend to bond and take care of the cuter animals, cuteness being both looks and behavior. Intelligence, however, can be the opposite of cute. Intelligence in a working animal (sheepherding dog, or mousing cat) is usually a positive trait.
That sounds about right. I remember reading those stories, and one of the cats enjoyed toasted marshmallows so much that he learned how to toast his own.
In the L. Sprague De Camp short story Hyperpiliosity, a mutating virus (influenza) causes latent DNA to activate, & most of Humanity grows a thick pelt of fur.
[Spoiler]To set this up, you need to know the first chapter. It lays out the culture of the carpet makers on one planet. They are a family. One man does the weaving, his wife and any daughters provide the hair for the carpet, and his son (and there is only one) is taught the trade to take over. They create just one or two of these carpets in a lifetime. In the opening chapter (which was published as a short story), a son rebels against the tradition. The father kills the son (who is in his teens) when his wife gives birth to a second.
The details are slowly revealed. About two-thirds in the novel, we’re shown the story of a man, kept prisoner in a chair, his eyes forced open like Alex in A Clockwork Orange as he watches his planet being striped of all life and covered with the carpets.
The final revelation is that the man was the leader of his world, a part of the Galactic empire, who made a pointed remark about the Emperor’s bald head. The entire system was set up to exact the Emperor’s revenge for the remark.
The final chapter echoes the first. Carpet making has been discontinued, but one carpet maker won’t quit. He’s the boy born in the first chapter, and he must continue to weave the carpet so that his brother didn’t die for nothing.[/spoiler]