Human male Flatlander, in 2366 a crew member on the starship Angel's Pencil. He was the ship's doctor, 38, amiable and slightly paunchy, with long, delicate fingers.
By 2641, We Made It had adopted the practice of sending to prison debtors unable to pay their bills.
Reference: "Neutron Star"
deep-radar
Radar or a radar-like detector, set for the deepest possible penetration. This takes different forms in two eras:
(a) In the pre-hyperdrive era (prior to 2411) it was used for ground penetration, and apparently was just a type of radar, using radio waves.
(b) In the hyperdrive era (after 2411), deep-radar used neutrinos for radar-like detection "...he reached toward his console to run a deep-radar scan. ... Why emit a discretionary neutrino pulse? ... Kirsten had wondered at being trained to emit a deep-radar ping on approach to a new star system" (Fleet of Worlds ch. 18, p. 156).. Set for the deepest penetration, only stasis fields and neutronium reflected the signal. Deep radar was often used to search for Slaver stasis boxes in uninhabited star systems. Deep-radar has most often been documented as a ship's system, although by 2657 it also existed as a bulky portable unit "They moved through the ship's pressure curtain, Jason toting a bulky portable deep-radar." ("The Soft Weapon", Neutron Star p. 79).. The starship Slower Than Infinity used it in 2645 to locate an Outsider ship. The starship Court Jester used it in 2657 to locate a stasis box in the Beta Lyrae system. [Spoiler alert: "There Is a Tide"]Louis Wu located the neutronium "moon" in 2830 using deep-radar.
Reference: (a) World of Ptavvs; (b) "Flatlander", "The Soft Weapon", "There Is a Tide"
a small, desktop autodoc of some diagnostic ability, but very limited in its treatments. In 2342 Douglas Hooker used one regularly to take blood samples and inject the anti-paranoia drugs he needed. It could also fight infections by dispensing antibiotics, and gave him manicures. Paul Jurgenson serviced that unit. In 2366 they were found on planes and short-hop aircraft, and were widely used by executives.
Reference: "Neutron Star", "A Relic of the Empire", "At the Core"
discontinuity
A term used to indicate a subjective "jump" in time, experienced by those inside a stasis field, as time passes outside the field but not inside. But Speaker-To-Animals used the term once in 2851 to refer to a gravitational singularity.
During the First Ringworld Expedition in 2851, Louis Wu compared the Ringworld to the universe of Dante's Divine Comedy, which portrayed men and angels as precisely machined parts of a vast, complex artifact.
(scientific name Tursiops truncatus) Bottle-nose dolphins, a sentient species of cetacean native to the oceans of Earth. By circa 2080, Dolphins were considered legally human Judy Greenberg said "Dolphins have been legally human since before you [Larry Greenberg] were born!" (World of Ptavvs p. 26). It is not clear how old Larry Greenberg was at the time of this account, but since he graduated from college and spent some years working with dolphins, he must have been at least 25. World of Ptavvs is set in 2106; 2106 - 25 = 2081.. In 2106 they began negotiating to send settlers to Human colony worlds; by circa 2646 they were running the fishing industry on Down.
Interspecies Relations: Dolphins have an embassy off the coast of Italy on Earth.
Reference:World of Ptavvs, "Flatlander", "Grendel", "The Handicapped"
Dolphin’s Hands
Prosthetic hands for Dolphins, resembling a squirt-jet motorboat motor with padded metal hands attached. The Dolphin controls it with his tongue. Circa 2646 the devices were manufactured by Garvey Limited.
A marginally habitable world orbiting a red dwarf star. Originally colonized by Humans before 2100 "By 2100 AD, five nearby solar systems held budding colonies: the worlds were Jinx, Wunderland, We Made It, Plateau, and Down" (interstital notes, Tales of Known Space p. 81)., Down was later conquered by the Kzinti empire. Freed during the Man-Kzin Wars, it became again a Human colony world. Circa 2646 it was still lightly settled; ultraviolet lamps were needed to grow crops there, and Dolphins ran the fishing industry. Grogs are native to the deserts. Down was probably one of four Human colonies mistakenly settled following erroneous ramrobot signals; see slowboat.
A container for drinks, originally designed for use in microgravity, but later used anywhere. In 2850 they were used by Louis Wu to serve drinks at his estate on Earth.
Reference: "The Warriors", "Flatlander", Ringworld ch. 2
The starship "yacht" owned by Larchmont Bellamy in 2647. It had a compact, thick hull, and wide landing legs. Its paint job, brilliant orange with garish markings in clashing colors, made it look ridiculous. [Spoiler alert: "Grendel"] No playboy's yacht, it was a powerful and highly maneuverable ship. The garish paint job was misdirection.
A proposed design for a megastructure, a spherical shell built around a star to trap every bit of sunlight, in order to trap all available energy from its sun. It originated as a thought experiment by Freeman Dyson in 1959. The Ringworld has been described as an engineering compromise between a Dyson sphere and a normal planet.
