Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I've taken some stick for passages in Altered Carbon which people complained had sickened them, but then violence should be sickening."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Dingbat | ||
| An alien mechanical parasite. |
On a strange alien planet, a mechanical parasite developed.
| The man looked dully at Dan. “Charlie’s the name,” he said. “Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.”
“Doesn’t sound practical,” said Dan. “I’ve built a few gadgets myself, but I wouldn’t try to stick a radio in a pen and then try to use it for a watch to boot.” “There’s space for a pack of cigarettes,” said the salesman. “Buy one for the lady? Plenty of compact room.” Dan Courtland picked up one. They were shapeless little blobs about four inches long and weighing about a half pound... "...I’m an inventor — but I wish I was as good as the guy who invented this combination washing machine, street car, and fire truck, providing it works. Wonder if it actually gives the time.” He took one of the Dingbats out of his pocket. A large, delicately figured watch face showed him the time. “That’s funny,” he muttered. “I'd swear that didn’t have a watch face on it before. It must have a snap cover that slid back as I took it out... As soon as class was over, Dan took the Little Dingbat into the lab behind the classroom and put it on a bench. He sat down and looked at it. From one angle it seemed to be cubical and gray. From another it seemed round and slightly green. Dan turned it around. It looked more like a flat disk from this side... He laughed to himself. Combination pen and watch and portable radio! ...He picked up the Dingbat as if it were an electropen, and then he saw that the corner that had been turned away from him actually did contain a point. But why hadn’t he seen it when that side had been facing him? He turned the Dingbat over and it fitted comfortably into his hand. It wrote smoothly and more rapidly than any other he had ever used. |
| Technovelgy from Deadly Host,
by Raymond F. Jones. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1945 Additional resources -
|
They come from the planet of Sian, described as a "mechanical world".
“The Sianese themselves are completely mechanical. Brains, appendages, and all. No one has ever seen anything of the insides of one. We know only that they exist. They wear out or die. And they reproduce by a method of group construction. I am the only man who has ever observed the process. I was able to see once how eight of them gathered around a workbench and took enough parts out of themselves to assemble a ninth creature that joined them apparently as intelligent and able as themselves. I believe that certain specialized mechanisms within the Sianese are constantly producing these parts used in assembling others.”
“And so?” said Dan.
“On Sian there are life forms of metal that are as different from each other as are the life forms of Earth. There are animals there, and insects, and even a peculiar sort of thing that is almost plantlike.”
Bud stopped and Dan kept looking at him. “Keep going.” "
“The Dingbats.” said Bud, “are insects of Sian.”
“Insects!”
“Right. Mechanical insects, a particularly deadly breed. The Sianese try to exterminate them with little radiation guns just like we spray flies.”
“Historians have tried to prove that the Sianese are the results of a civilization conquered by the robots it built to serve it. No one knows any facts that are really certain except that Sianese history goes back about sixty thousand years and stops abruptly. No petering out. Just stops.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Deadly Host
More Ideas
and Technology by Raymond F. Jones
Tech news articles related to Deadly Host
Tech news articles related to works by Raymond F. Jones
Dingbat-related
news articles:
- Replace The Smartphone With A Connected Edge Node For AI Inference
| You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic... |
| ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's |
| When Colds Threaten You Can't Do This - Or Can You? |
| MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
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.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
