How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
And Mike took on endless new jobs. In May 2075, besides controlling robot traffic and catapult and giving ballistic advice and/or control for manned ships, Mike controlled phone system for all Luna, same for Luna-Terra voice & video, handled air, water, temperature, humidity, and sewage for Luna City, […]. (1.11)
Technology is a lot like Pringles—once you pop, you just can't stop. Once one job proves more efficient with technology, people just keep finding other jobs for tech to do.
Quote #2
"How much a tonne of your wheat fetches in Bombay? How little it costs the Authority to get it from catapult head to Indian Ocean? Downhill all the way! Just solid-fuel retros to brake it—and where do those come from? Right here! […] Lunar power—not one kilowatt up from Terra. It comes from Lunar ice and Lunar steel, or sunshine spilled on Luna's soil—all put together by loonies!" (2.62)
As we'll see later in the novel, the Loonies' major advantage in the revolution is that they have technology on their side. This quote hints at the importance utilizing technology will play.
Quote #3
"Wyoming, not sure we would lose Luna City if Mike were blown up. Loonies are handy and might jury-rig till automation could be restored. But I tell you true: Many people would die and rest too busy for politics." (4.51)
Of course, technology only does so much. The ability to use and manage technology by people is the other half of the Loonies' success equation—specifically when it comes to our protagonist, Mannie.
Quote #4
Mike reasoned so: What is "war"? One book defined war as use of force to achieve political results. And "force" is action of one body on another applied by means of energy.
In war this is done by "weapons"—Luna had none. (8.2-3)
And weapons are, you guessed it, technology. Since we chiseled our first flint spear, people have been killing each other with technology. While that technology has certainly developed into more complex forms, the principles are still the same.
Quote #5
Conditioning a single residence should not go through a master computer! In Davis Tunnels we handled home and farm with idiot controls, feedbacks for each cubic with alarms so that somebody could climb out of bed and control by hand until trouble could be found. (9.83)
This is just good advice right here. If everything runs on the same system, and that system fails, then everything fails. In our tech savvy age, this is definitely something to keep in mind.
Quote #6
All communication Earthside channeled through Mike. But those brain boys had enough electronic equipment to stock a warehouse; once they decided to, it took them only hours to breadboard a rig that could reach Terra. (14.77)
Another great lesson: Don't underestimate scientists, ever. Also notice how the people who give the Loonies the most trouble during the initial stages of their revolution are those with a mastery of technology…
Quote #7
What I had was a sore throat that missed pneumonia only through drugs, traveler's trots, skin disease on hands and spreading to feet—just like my other trips to that disease-ridden hole, Terra. We Loonies don't know how lucky we are, living in a place that has tightest of quarantines, almost no vermin and what we have controlled by vacuum anytime necessary. (16.48)
Mannie is totally not looking on the bright side here. The awesome technology that makes his Moon life so sterile and healthy is the same technology that gets him back to Earth and keeps him alive down there.
Quote #8
Prof waved it aside. "A technicality. Sir, there was a time when it was not simply expensive to ship goods across oceans but impossible. Then it was expensive, difficult, dangerous. Today you sell goods half around your planet almost as cheaply as next door; long-distance shipping is the least important factor in cost." (17.72)
Oh man, are we happy to live in the age that we do—a trip to England from New York takes about six hours instead of the six months it would take by boat. And what innovation does Prof believe we should thank for this? Technology, of course.
Quote #9
"Not at all, Man. I feel ashamed. The instruments at Richardson—telescopes and other things—are factors which I simply never included in my calculations. […]. Other possibilities—I don't know what to say, Man, save that it had never occurred to me that I could use telescopes. I see by radar, always have; I simply never consid—" (26.49)
We love this ending. The best solution was also the simplest one, and the super computer didn't think of it. But a telescope is still technically technology, so it's still tech for the win, even if it is not hi-tech tech.
Quote #10
You listening, Bog? Is a computer one of Your creatures? (30.34)
You can see the development of later science fiction tropes at work here. Although this novel doesn't dive too deep into the idea of technology developing as a type of life, it does pave the way for other novels exploring the theme, such as Neuromancer.