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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Self-Assembling Robots | ||
| Robots with the capacity to assemble themselves from components, and then switch themselves on. |
This is a relatively early, explicit reference to this idea in sf.
| The Sheem Robots were modeled after living animals of various worlds, and the Spider is considered to have been the most perfect of them all. This is the last specimen still in existence. You asked whether I had assembled it recently... Yes, I have. It's a most simple process...
The captain swung the gun up, pointed it at Yango's chest. "What are you hiding?" he asked. "Why, the activating mechanism," Yango frowned puzzledly. "I understood you wished to see it assembled. You see, the Sheen Robots assemble themselves when the signal to to it is registered by them." |
| Technovelgy from The Witches of Karres,
by James Schmitz. Published by Not known in 1966 Additional resources -
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Witches of Karres
More Ideas
and Technology by James Schmitz
Tech news articles related to The Witches of Karres
Tech news articles related to works by James Schmitz
Self-Assembling Robots-related
news articles:
- CkBot Modular Robot Self-Assembles, Picks Gait
- Self-Assembling Robot Swarm
- Robot Lamp Assembles Itself (Via 3D Printer)
| Robots Repair And Modify Themselves |
| Robot Janitors Get To Work |
| Robots Learn To Install Charged Batteries Into Themselves |
| Robot Rabbits Entice Pythons |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
