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"I'm very taken by mythology. I read it at a very early age and kept on reading it. Before I discovered science fiction I was reading mythology."
- Roger Zelazny
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| Self-Guided Tractors | ||
| A farm vehicle that drives itself. |
| Five miles above the sunlight tube, the sky was a patchwork of small squares, split by a central wedding ring of lake and by tributary rivers, a sky alive with the tiny red glints of self-guided tractors. |
| Technovelgy from At the Bottom of a Hole,
by Larry Niven. Published by Galaxy Magazine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
SF fans at the movies are ready with their favorite example of autonomous combines - take a look at these beauties from the recent 2015 hit movie Interstellar.
(Autonomous combines in Interstellar)
Compare to the automatic cultivators from Piracy Preferred (1930) by John W. Campbell, the conscious farm machines from The Hidden Colony (1935) by Otfrid von Hanstein, the robot farmer from The Turning Wheel (1954) by Philip K. Dick, the field minder from Who Can Replace A Man (1963) by Brian Aldiss, the Robomule from Bill the Galactic Hero (1965) by Harry Harrison, the robot crab from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson and the agricultural robot pest controller from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from At the Bottom of a Hole
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to At the Bottom of a Hole
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Self-Guided Tractors-related
news articles:
- Rowbot Small Autonomous Farm Robot
- Once A Jolly Swagbot Camped By A Billabong
- The Hands-Free Hectare
- CNH Industrial Autonomous Tractor Concept Video
- Multi-Robot Farming On Highly Sloped Land
| PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers |
| Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along |
| Robot Guard Dog On Duty |
| Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles |
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
