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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Robot Biomimicry | ||
| Endowing robots with an organic-appearing fluidity, rather than mechanical motion. |
As far as I know, Wells is the first to both describe machines that seem to move like organic beings, and also to describe some sort of means by which this "biomimicry" might be accomplished. Wells himself did not use this expression.
He called it "a curious parallelism to animal motions".
| ...And while upon this matter of detail, it is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature of the disks in an elastic sheath; these disks become polarised and drawn closely and powerfully together when traversed by a current of electricity. In this way the curious parallelism to animal motions, which was so striking and disturbing to the human beholder, was attained. Such quasi-muscles abounded in the crablike handling-machine which, on my first peeping out of the slit, I watched unpacking the cylinder. It seemed infinitely more alive than the actual Martians lying beyond it in the sunset light... |
| Technovelgy from The War of the Worlds,
by H.G. Wells. Published by Harper and Bros. in 1898 Additional resources -
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More Ideas
and Technology from The War of the Worlds
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and Technology by H.G. Wells
Tech news articles related to The War of the Worlds
Tech news articles related to works by H.G. Wells
Robot Biomimicry-related
news articles:
- Rippling Fin Robot Drone Swims And Walks
| Robot Hand Separate From Robot |
| Is Optimus Autonomous Or Teleoperated? |
| Robot Masseuse Rubs People The Right Way |
| Optimus Robot Can Charge Itself |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...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.'
