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"Tokyo homeless people reiterate the whole nature of living in Tokyo in cardboard boxes, they're only slightly smaller than Tokyo apartments, and they have almost as many consumer goods. It's a nightmare of boxes within boxes."
- William Gibson
 |
| Reporting Machine | ||
| A robotic roving reporter. |
| The buzzing, super-alert obnoxiously persistent reporting machine said, "Is it true, Dr. Egon Superb, that you're going to try to enter your office today?"
There should have been some way to keep reporting machines out of one's house, Dr. Superb reflected. However, there was not... |
| Technovelgy from The Simulacra,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace in 1964 Additional resources -
|
Here's another descriptive passage:
It rolled toward him, blocking his way. "How do you feel, sir?"
Reporting machines could also talk directly to their audience:
"But for the present, we can only..." The newscaster rattled excitedly on, as all over the USEA the mechanical reporting machines coasted about in the areas of conflict, gathering data for him.
Dick provides this passage to let the reader know what he thinks about mechanical news media:
The idea of a reporting machine is a continuing theme for PKD; see also the autonomic interviewer from The Zap Gun (1965).
Dick was fascinated by the idea of a completely automated news production service; see homeopapes (short for homeostatic newspaper). In If There Was No Benny Cemoli, Dick refers to "news receptors" used by the fully automated news services for gathering news.
For a real-life implementation of this idea see this article on the roving robotic reporter.
After breakfast when he walked outside to his wheel he found a second reporting machine lying in wait for him...
"It is interesting," one of the reporting machines was murmuring, for the benefit of its TV audience...
The reporting machines extended their hose-like receptors, sucking in data rapidly.
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and Technology from The Simulacra
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Tech news articles related to The Simulacra
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Reporting Machine-related
news articles:
- Paparazzi Bots Get The Picture
| 'Facetime Facelift' Beautifies Video Chats |
| Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's |
| Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper |
| BookTrack Adds Sound To Books |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
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'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
