an instantaneous communication device, not limited by the speed of light; cf. earlier ultraphone n.
Noting the coordinates at which the ansible sender was set, he changed them to the coordinates of the League HILF Survey Base for Galactic Area 8, at Kerguelen, on the planet New South Georgia—the only coordinates he knew without reference to a handbook.
They print Reumere’s plans for the ansible.
On his first day Ender Wiggin was taught about the ansible and what it meant to warfare. It meant that even though the starships of today’s battles were launched a hundred years ago, the commanders of the starships were men of today, who used the ansible to send messages to the computers and the few men on each ship. The ansible sent words as they were spoken, orders as they were made. Battleplans as they were fought. Light was a pedestrian.
They left a hundred years ago. And they carried on them the ansible, and only a few men. So that someday a commander could sit on a planet somewhere far from the battle and command the fleet. So that our best minds would not be destroyed by the enemy.
Val had finished the first volume of her history of the bugger wars and transmitted it by ansible, under Demosthene’s name, back to Earth.
Ham’s eyes were drawn to the stone carving (now bluish green) that sat on Larry’s desk. The old man nodded. ‘It’s an ansible.’ ‘Surely they don’t call it that!’ ‘No. But that’s what it is.’
‘Communications… You know, when I was commissioned, we didn’t have FTL communications except from planetary platforms. I was on Boarhound when they mounted the first shipboard ansible, and at first it was only one-way, from the planet to us. That was still pretty exciting. Then they worked out how to get enough power for transmission.
‘You're familiar with the theory of ansible technology, Heather?’ Petersen looked mildly surprised. ‘The idea that two twinned quantum particles will resonate in eternal synchronicity with each other, no matter how far you separate them in space? Of course.’
Captain! Ansible flash!… Local origin—this ansible—and it’s… omigod!
Despite Heris’s sense of urgency, she took her flotilla through the intermediate jump points with all due caution, checking ansible activity along the way. Nothing more from the ansible at CX-42-h and the only word from HQ was ‘Proceed with caution.’
‘Is this conversation being transmitted?’ I asked mostly to test my vocal cords. ‘For the Senators, of course,’ replied Belam, ‘by ansible. You can speak directly to them’.
antedating 1966
LeGuin, Rocannon's World
Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.