http://wiki.lspace.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Strata-machine_operatorsStrata-machine operators - Revision history2026-05-02T14:56:27ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.41.1http://wiki.lspace.org/index.php?title=Strata-machine_operators&diff=6360&oldid=prevOsiris: 1 revision: Discworld import 22012-09-24T00:12:56Z<p>1 revision: Discworld import 2</p>
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</td></tr></table>Osirishttp://wiki.lspace.org/index.php?title=Strata-machine_operators&diff=6359&oldid=prevOld Dickens: category2008-11-08T15:44:52Z<p>category</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>Back-engineered from a discovered [[Spindle]] artefact, this immense piece of engineering is used to convert raw energy and anything else it can feed into the hopper into the very stuff of planets.<br />
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Given a good [[mixer]] who can program the mind-bogglingly complex on-board computer, a Strata-machine can build anything you like, from a mile-high cliff to an idyllic sandy beach.<br />
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Of course, once the thrill of driving one wears off, the operators have been known to introduce unauthorized personal signatures, like a dinosaur fossil clutching an "End Nuclear Testing Now!" placard, or a pair of boots several miles down in a supposedly millions-year old coal layer.<br />
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This is invariably detected by the [[Company]], and retribution inevitably follows. Of course, the actual punishment is administered by a Sec-Exec such as [[Kin Arad]], who did the same sort of thing when she was a young S-machine operator herself, and knows when to go easy. <br />
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==Annotation==<br />
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Strata was published in 1981. Two years earlier, the '''Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy''' first aired on BBC radio. The radio series was novelized and committed to LP record in 1980. A theme of h2g2 is the planet Magrathea, where the local Company built custom-made planets, including a planetary outer skin to disguise the fact that the utterly insignificant little blue-green planet Earth was in fact a super-computer designed to work out the Question to the Answer which is 42. For more: go here[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/dna/]<br />
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What Slartibartfast could have done with a Strata-machine, as regards fjords and other crinkly bits...<br />
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Cross-fertilization of ideas, between Terry Pratchett and [[Douglas Adams]]?<br />
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[[Category:Strata]]</div>Old Dickens