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" I think that computers today allow us one last opportunity to provide something like a level playingfield in America."
- William Gibson
 |
| Robotic Trash Can | ||
| A sensor-equipped waste can capable of autonomous cleaning - and legal judgement. |
Carl Tritt is having a bad day. Sentenced to twenty years by a robot judge, he makes the mistake of spitting on the sidewalk.
| Forgetting where he was in his misery, he choked a bit. Then spat heavily.
Even as the saliva hit the spotless sidewalk, a waste can twenty feet away stirred into life. It rotated on hidden wheels and soundlessly rolled towards him. In shocked horror Carl pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. Too late to stop what was already done. A flexible arm licked out and quickly swabbed the sidewalk clean. Then the can squatted like a mechanical Buddha while a speaker rasped to life in its metal insides. A tinny mechanical voice addressed Carl. "Carl Tritt, you have violated Local Ordinance #bd-14-668 by expectorating on a public sidewalk. The sentence is two days. Your total sentence is now twenty years and two days." |
| Technovelgy from Robot Justice,
by Harry Harrison. Published by Fantastic Universe in 1959 Additional resources -
|
This reminds me of the Profanity Sensors (see a picture of the original movie prop) in the 1993 movie Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock. Whenever Sly swore (which he did often) a nearby sensor announced his crime and printed out a ticket.
Compare to the garbage device from The Age of The Pussyfoot (1966), by Frederik Pohl.
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Robotic Trash Can-related
news articles:
- Bombproof Trash Can Secures Rubbish
- DustCart Robotic Trash Can From DustBot
- DustBot Video Shows Robotic Future Of Trash
- Hail SmartCan! Your Trash Bin Takes Itself Out
| Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion' |
| China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter |
| FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers |
| Perching Ambush Drones |
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'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
