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"This is a predictive tool I've used: There are goals we've sought for ten thousand years, and we'll go on seeking them. Instant transport and travel, immortality (or at least longevity and miracle cures.), instant learning …"
- Larry Niven
 |
| Electric Menu | ||
| Ordering of food is automated, without waiters. |
| I paused as we passed an automatic dinner service. With a nod she assented to my enquiring look and we passed inside. A courteous robot ushered us to our tables and placed the electric menu before us. We surveyed it, chose our requirements, and then pressed the corresponding buttons arranged at the side of the menu. Instantly the table top turned over and there was our meal upon metal plates. This “turnover” was effected by tremendous centrifugal force which naturally prevented the viands from hurtling off. I would mention here that the idea of tabloid food had never really attracted anybody, and the food of 2,000 was about the same as it had always been, save for the fact that there were many cultured, delicious dishes from future ages. |
| Technovelgy from Liners of Time,
by John Russell Fearn. Published by Amazing Stories in 1935 Additional resources -
|
I was going to do a Science Fiction in the News article on this Technovelgy item, but then I realized that it would be about ten years too late! I do know of one restaurant that still uses them, but they're just trying to get the last bit of value from the iPads they bought twelve years ago.
Anyway, here's how they work.
Today (2022), I think the latest incarnation of the "electric menu" is the digital menu, which you pull up on your phone using a QR code on the table.
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Tech news articles related to Liners of Time
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| 3D Printed Cheesecake Not Quite Food Replicator Quality |
| Porcine Fat Cells For 3D-Printed Whole Pork Products |
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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.'
