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"I think a lot of kids whose mental growth outruns their maturity gravitate to science fiction."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Disinto | ||
| A disintegrating ray. |
Robot AL-76 was created to take on one job - running a Disinto on the moon. The farmers of Hannaford County, Virginia were surprised to meet him.
| There exists no adequate description of what occurred afterwards, in spite of the presence of seventy witnesses... ...AL-76 pulled a switch. The Disinto worked, and seventy-five trees, two barns, three cows and the top three quarters of Duckbill Mountain whiffed into rarefied atmosphere... |
| Technovelgy from Robot AL-76 Goes Astray,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Ziff-Davis in 1941 Additional resources -
|
This story is a lot of fun to read; you can find it in The Complete Robot.
For a similar device, see the Wunderland Treatymaker from Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven.
(Thanks to Randy for pointing this one out.)
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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.
