`  == Fictional Technology, etc. Irrelevant ==  The section on fictional technology in Atlas Shrugged is taking up space that could be used to address much more important issues about the novel, such as how Rand structured the concrete events of the novel to demonstrate the abstract principles she presented in Galt's speech. The fictional technology section borders on triviality because these technologies are not intended to be anything other than place holders for actual technologies that are always pioneered by the individual reasoning mind and perverted by altruist-collectivist villains. Rand's fictional technologies are not in the tradition of science fiction projections of the social consequences of space travel or robotics, they are closer to the projected technologies in Fritz Lang's Metropolis  the technology is there to show the exploitation of the workers in Metropolis and of the 'men of the mind' in Atlas. Consider the ``Ferris Persuader`` at the climax. The real point of the scene is that they are torturing Galt to force him to take over the failing economy (true!) when the machine fails and Galt has to tell them how to repair the device with which they are torturing him, making the point that as parasites they need his mind for everything.  It trivializes the work to devote so much time to the details of the imaginary technology and so little to its meaning.   The same thing is true of the comparison of the fictional railroad to the real ones. I propose we get rid of all these comparatively trivial items and instead draw on the many scholarly sources on the structure and meaning of Atlas Shrugged including those from ARI, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, etc., and I call on members of Wiki Project Objectivism to help. I'll wait for your comments before removing the material I think is of little relevance. —  `