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"[Science fiction] has become big business, where books are merchandised and promoted and distributed and placed on sale like slabs of bacon or cans of soup."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Scuttle-bot | ||
| An all-purpose surveillance robot that climbed rather than flew. |
I like to think that the clever name of this robot is back-formed from "scuttlebutt", a nautical term for gossip or rumors. The scuttlebutt was a ship's equivalent to a water cooler, a cask of fresh water for drinking.
| A scuttle-bot could climb a tree and anchor itself, just listening and watching, sniffing and measuring, constantly reporting back. Usually scuttle-bots worked in teams, with one on the ground and several more at various heights all the way up. |
| Technovelgy from Hella,
by David Gerrold. Published by DAW Books in 2020 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robot tracking device from Vulcan's Hammer (1960) by Philip K. Dick, the robot snake spy from Mariposa (2009) by Greg Bear and the tracer bird from Changeling (1980) by Roger Zelazny.
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Tech news articles related to Hella
Tech news articles related to works by David Gerrold
| Optimus Robot Will Be A Good Nanny, Says Musk |
| LORIS Passive-Gripper Climbing Robot |
| Athena Smart Security Guard Robot With Face Recognition |
| SpaceHopper Microgravity Robot Lands On Its Feet |
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'The actuating mechanism that should have operated by the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell...'
'The only real cost was in the plastic balloon that guided the growth of the coral and enclosed the coral's special air-borne food.'
'The border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
