In his 1959 short story Robot Justice, Harry Harrison wrote about a far more evolved robotic trash can that takes planetary cleanliness to an even higher level; it is even able to detect such unhygienic behavior as spitting on the sidewalk..
Even as the saliva hit the spotless sidewalk, a waste can twenty feet away stirred into life. It rotated on hidden wheels and soundlessly rolled towards him.
A flexible arm licked out and quickly swabbed the sidewalk clean. Then the can squatted like a mechanical Buddha while a speaker rasped to life in its metal insides. A tinny mechanical voice addressed Carl.
"Carl Tritt, you have violated Local Ordinance #bd-14-668 by expectorating on a public sidewalk. The sentence is two days.
(Read more about the Robotic Trash Can)
The Desert Ship Sailed In Imagination
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.' - Ray Bradbury, 1950.
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