speculative device theme

There is a futuristic device, machine, or gizmo of some sort or another.

22 total · 10 major · 12 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
ds92x11 major A gambling device fundamentally altered the laws of probability so that extremely improbable events became commonplace.
movie: Clockstoppers (2002) major Central to the plot was a wristwatch that when activated sped up its wearer's molecules to the point where the world appears in standstill.
movie: La Charcuterie mécanique (1895) major A live pig in placed into a box-like machine that automatically butchered it into various cuts of meat.
movie: Sphere (1998) major A main novelty of the film is a perfect sphere with a gold-colored fluidic surface that makes the thoughts of anyone who goes inside it manifest into reality.
movie: The Crazy Ray (1924) major A mad scientist used the titular "crazy ray" contraption to freeze the whole world in time.
movie: The Girl the Gold Watch & Everything (1980) major Kirby Winter inherited a gold pocket watch that had the power to freeze time.
movie: Who Wants to Kill Jessie (1966) major A couple used a machine to materialize various objects and people from their dreams to the real world.
rbt1985e6x02 major Leo dedicated himself to building a "happiness" machine. The machine was blue, about the size of a dumpster, and designed for a single occupant. The occupant, when shut up inside the contraption, was presented with a cavalcade of pleasant sensory inputs, such as flashing lights and a slideshow of world travel destinations. This, Leo reasoned, would be enough to make anybody happy. In the end, however, Leo came to believe that true happiness was to be found in home, family, and taking life as it is. [smell-o-vision]
tftc1989e7x08 major Elliot invented a special apparatus that detected thoughts from dead bodies.
tz1959e5x04 major McNulty was given a time freezing stopwatch by a mysterious foreigner.