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"As a writer, I don't want to chew my cud. I don't want to have to spit out and regurgitate the same stuff again."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Mechanical Cleaning Device | ||
| A small, ground-based autonomous robot doing basic janitorial work. |
This is a relatively early reference to this idea. The Roomba vacuum cleaner and the Scooba floor cleaning robot from iRobot are now ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive devices.
(Scooba in action)
| Most of the Interior staff had gone home to bed; it was almost three in the morning, and the corridors and offices were deserted. A few mechanical cleaning devices crept here and there in the darkness. |
| Technovelgy from The Unreconstructed M,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Science Fiction Stories in 1957 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the MSE-6 series repair and clean up droid, made famous in the original 1976 film Star Wars.
Also, fans of Ray Bradbury might be thinking of the robot mice from his 1950 novel The Martian Chronicles, while Heinlein fans might be thinking of the hired girl robot from his 1956 novel The Door into Summer.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Unreconstructed M
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and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Unreconstructed M
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Mechanical Cleaning Device-related
news articles:
- Robot Janitors Get To Work
| DIY Robotic Content Farming |
| Vero Robotic Dog With Vacuum Cleaner Feet |
| Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot |
| Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin |
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'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
