Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"At its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we can't predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe."
- John Brunner
 |
| Rolem (Wrestling Robot) | ||
| A robotic wrestling companion. |
One of Earth's caretakers in This Immortal, by Roger Zelazny, is Konstantin Kharageosis, who also goes by Conrad (and various other names). Conrad stopped aging around thirty (hence the book title). At one point, Conrad goes slightly mad, and his companions set a robotic sparring partner upon him to keep him occupied.
| Off in the distance, I heard a scream. 'Stop it, Hassan, it's not supposed to do that!' Which meant that I was Conrad, and that I was in Egypt, and that the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being, and was probably so set, a creature which could be given the reflexes of an adrenalized cat, and doubtless had them in full operation. Only a golem wasn't supposed to kill, except by accident and Rolem was trying to kill me. |
| Technovelgy from This Immortal,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Ace Science Fiction in 1965 Additional resources -
|
This novel is one of my favorites; it bears repeated reading, and is in no way dated nearly forty years after publication. Zelazny creates a remarkable fusion of past and future in This Immortal. He does a fabulous job of reverting Earth to the age of heroic Greek mythology, where people who live too close to "hot spots" have children with mutations that just might make them satyrs or other creatures of myth.
Here's a bit more detail about the wrestling robot:
Not surprisingly, this novel won the Hugo for best science fiction novel in 1966.
See the entry for robot, from R.U.R. by Karel Capek, who coined the word "robot."
Compare to the fight-machine boxing robot from Jingle in the Jungle, by Aldo Giunta, published by IF in 1957.
A worthy opponent was the golem. Hasan had it programmed at twice the statistically-averaged strength of a man and had its reflex-time upped by fifty percent. Its memory contained hundreds of wrestling holds and its governor theoretically prevented it from killing or maiming its opponent - all through a series of chemelectric afferent nerve-analogues, which permitted it to gauge to an ounce the amount of pressure necessary to snap a bone or tear a tendon. Rolem was about five feet, six inches in height and weighed around two hundred fifty pounds...
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from This Immortal
More Ideas
and Technology by Roger Zelazny
Tech news articles related to This Immortal
Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny
Rolem (Wrestling Robot)-related
news articles:
- HOAP-2 Robot Masters Sumo And Linux. RoboShiko!
- Robots Get Pressure-Sensitive Skin
- Amazing Robot Wrestling
- Arm Spirit Arm-Wrestling Arcade Game Rampage
- Robot Wrestler Vs. Human Wrestler Video
- Touch Sensor For Sensitive Robots
- E-Skin For Robots - And Maybe You
- Autonomous Sumo Robot Wrestling Video
- Soft Robots Use Kirigami Piezoelectric Sensor Skin
- RoboShiko! Sumo Exercises Still Good For Robots
| It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned! |
| Tactile Skin Supplier Map |
| Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo |
| DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
