Larry Niven

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Larry Niven

See all quotes from Larry Niven

9 First Quotations from Larry Niven

autodoc n. 1965 L. Niven World of Ptavvs in Worlds of Tomorrow Mar. 48/2 ‘Say, how come I rate a human doctor, anyway?’ ‘What happened to you isn’t programmed into the autodocs.’
Belter n. 1965 L. Niven World of Ptavvs in Worlds of Tomorrow Mar. 56/1 They’ll be armed for us, and a weapon is a weapon…. Belters, they’re always waiting for the first ET. They’ll be armed for bear.
holo n. 1970 L. Niven Ringworld 31 You may examine the holo Louis Wu is carrying. That is the only information I can give you at this time.
in-system adj. 1968 L. Niven Slowboat Cargo in Worlds of If Feb. 10/1 The ship began to drag a little, a very little, as the cone scooped up interstellar dust and hydrogen. She was still accelerating. Her insystem tank was idle now, and would be for the next twelve years. Her food would be the thin stuff she scooped out between the stars.
launching laser n. 1971 L. Niven Fourth Profession in 1972 Annual World’s Best SF (1972) 23 You don’t have to depend on sunlight, not if you’re launching from a civilized system. Every civilized system has a moon-based launching laser. By the time the sun is too far away to give the ship a decent push, the beam from the laser cannon is spreading just enough to give the sail a hefty acceleration without vaporizing anything.
organlegger n. 1967 L. Niven Jigsaw Man in H. Ellison Dangerous Visions 220 If the odds broke right, if the right people came down with the right diseases at the right time, the organlegger might save more lives than he had taken.
organlegging n. 1969 L. Niven Organleggers in Galaxy Jan. 118/1 It involved an organlegging gang, apparently run by a single man, yet big enough to cover half the North American west coast.
ramscoop n. 1965 L. Niven World of Ptavvs in Worlds of Tomorrow Mar. 33/1 The interstellar ramscoop robots had been searching out man-habitable systems for nearly a century.
torch drive n. 1976 L. Niven Words in Science Fiction in Craft of Science Fiction 182 Simple description. Torch drive, duplicator, flying belt. Dolphins’ hands and telepathically operated tools on tractor treads.