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"The idea I want to push next is that the United States should make Siberia a Protectorate. Pay the Russians off – a hundred, two hundred billion dollars – and simply run Siberia in an ecologically responsible way."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| 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.
Compare to the mirror menu from Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1890) by Ignatius Donnelly.
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and Technology from Liners of Time
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Tech news articles related to Liners of Time
Tech news articles related to works by John Russell Fearn
| Holland Factory 3D Printing 500 Tons Of Steak Per Month |
| Robochef Robotic Food Prep |
| Drone Deliveries Instead Of Waiters In Restaurants? |
| SliceIt! Why Not Teach Robots To Use Knives? |
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
