Life-Line
- by Robert A. Heinlein
- Short Story
- Adults
- Time Phenomena
- English
- “Life-Line” by Robert A. Heinlein, in Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1939.
Professor Hugo Pinero builds a machine that predicts a person's moment of death without fail by scientifically probing their life line.
—Michael Main
I will repeat my discovery. In simple language, I have invented a technology to tell how long a man will live. I can give you advance billing of the Angel of Death. I can tell you when the Black Camel will kneel at your door. In five minutes’ time, with my apparatus, I can tell any of you how many grains of sand are still left in your hour-glass.
Tags
(6)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1930 to 1939: the story’s presumed home time
- Timeline Models
- Foretold or Seen Future Is Inevitable
- Single Consistent Timeline: As with Heinlein’s other time travel stories, there is no changing the one timeline.
- Themes
- Groupings
Variants
(2)
- “Life-Line” by Robert A. Heinlein, in Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1939.
- alternative byline and title.
Lifeline
, as by Robert Heinlein, in The Best of Robert Heinlein: 1939–1942 (Sphere, May 1977).