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"It is change ... that is the dominant factor in society today... the world as it will be. This means that ... every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.""
- Isaac Asimov
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| Robot Bird | ||
| A small winged UAV that can mimic a bird in flight. |
When you're a Stinker, and other people can't stand to be around you, the company of intelligent robotic birds with excellent voice recognition abilities and conversational skills can be a blessing.
| He ruffled his plastic feathers. "I have calculated... that the retentive capacity of my memory is now restricted to a mere 70,000 additional words - how about fixing me up with two more retentive banks?"
...Craig smiled faintly. "As soon as possible and that's a promise." Gun extended one wing, examined his feathers and said: "Many thanks." When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit. Over the years, however, he had given them life and intelligence... They had developed into personalities and provided stimulating companions in his isolation. He had given them free-decision, apart from their business as bodyguards and all three had total recall. Gun, the golden eagle, was a compulsive reader... Recky, the first of the two kestrals, was apt to become lost in classical music while Screen, the second one, was literally working his way through college in a variety of abstract subjects. |
| Technovelgy from Invader on My Back,
by Philip E. High. Published by Ace Books in 1968 Additional resources -
|
Here's a typical sample of Gun's interaction with Craig's enemies:
"- what kind of bird flies at ninety-seven thousand feet for God's sake?"
High above, Gun folded his wings and dropped like a stone. As he dropped his body vibrated oddly and things happened to the ship below him. Sparks danced on its back and where the sparks danced, the surface opened jaggedly spraying smoke and fragments...
Compare to the bird-like robots from Flamingo (1930) by CE Heller and the metal birds from Vulcan's Hammer (1960), by Philip K. Dick.
The operator gave it magnification. "Okay, it's a bird, yeah a bird, small eagle or something."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Invader on My Back
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip E. High
Tech news articles related to Invader on My Back
Tech news articles related to works by Philip E. High
Robot Bird-related
news articles:
- Robocopter Listens And Obeys
- Robot Bird Alights On Human Hand
- SHEPHERD-MIL, A Birdlike Soaring UAV
- Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
- Birds Aren't Real - Wake Up, California! (With Bird Watching Guide)
- Flying Robot Inspired By Hawks
- Robotic Crow Design, Like Crows, Is A Bit Creepy
| Robots For Hire En Masse |
| Robot Clerks Become A Reality In China |
| Atlas Robot Makes Uncomfortable Movements |
| Humanoid Robots Tickle The Ivories |
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'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
