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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
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| Smart Bike | ||
| A motorcycle with sophisticated systems for steering and balance. |
Some people are just never satisfied with basic physics.
| Norman, as always, drove like a maniac. Norman was young. He had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems. He rode the bike with an intense lack of physical grace, as if trying to do algebra with his legs. ...[they] buzzed up along the road shoulder, the smart bike and sidecar scrunching over the oyster shells with oozy cybernetic ease. |
| Technovelgy from Distraction,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by Bantam Spectra in 1998 Additional resources -
|
Once any bicycle or motorcycle gets up to speed, it will tend to stay stable thanks to the considerable angular momentum of the spinning wheels. Some people just want more.
Compare to the gyrocar from Two Boys in a Gyrocar the story of a New York to Paris motor race (1911) by Kenneth Brown, the Gyro-Hat from An Experiment in Gyro-Hats (1926) by Ellis Parker Butler, the leading machine from Paradise and Iron (1930) by Miles J. Breuer, the tumblebug from The Roads Must Roll (1940) by Robert Heinlein, the Two-Wheeled Ground Car from First Lensman (1950) by E.E. 'Doc' Smith, the Gyro Two-Wheeled Truck from The Sign of the Tiger (1958) by Alan Nourse (w/Meyer) and the Gyrocar (Gyro) from The Ring (1969) by Piers Anthony (w/R. Margroff).
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Distraction
More Ideas
and Technology by Bruce Sterling
Tech news articles related to Distraction
Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling
Smart Bike-related
news articles:
- Ghostrider Robot: Sterling's Smart Motorcycle?
- Terminator Salvation Motorcycle Robot Like Ghostrider
- Google Lobbies For Autonomous Motorcycles
- Lit Motors Self-Balancing Motorcycle
- BMW Self-Balancing Motorcycle - Never Put Feet On Road
- Meet Assist-e Honda's Self-Balancing Motorcycle
- Yamaha MOTOROiD Living Motorcycle Experiment
- Yamaha Motoroid 2 No Handlebars Self-Balancing Motorcycle
| San Francisco Autobus |
| Volvo's Autonomous Truck |
| Eviation Alice Electric Plane First Flight |
| Robotaxi By Cruise Premieres in Austin, Texas |
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'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...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
