Skyhook (cable)

A skyhook is a "hook" used to lift an object on a long cable hanging from the sky, without readily apparent support. In the mid-20th century it was common in the Boy Scouts^[1] and occupations such as oil drilling^[2] to send new recruits on a futile search for such an imaginary object, as a practical joke. The term has subsequently lent its name to some real mechanisms that use an airborne hook or hoist, and to other products or ideas that allude to the concept. The American philosopher Richard Rorty uses the term to refer to a hypothetical metaphysical system that leads to a universal perspective.^[3]

References

1. Dlouhy, Michael (2009-02-09). "A Boy Scout Comes Clean". Retrieved 2010-07-02.
2. "Sky Hook". The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
3. "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Richard Rorty".