Science Fiction in the News:
Science and Technology News

DataTraveler Ultimate Generation 2 Terabyte Flashdrive
'A man or woman could carry AIs or complete planetary data spheres...' - Dan Simmons, 1989. (re: Dan Simmons)

HyperFace Aims To Foil Facial Recognition
'...A million and a half physiognomic fraction-representations of various people.' - Philip K. Dick, 1977. (re: Philip K. Dick)

MIT's aeroMorph Technology
'... It falls into that structure like a rubber figure returning to shape.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966. (re: Samuel R. Delany)

Woolim DPRK Surveillance Tablet And Doctorow's 'Schoolbook'
'...cracking my SchoolBook had been easy.' Take heed, North Koreans! (re: Cory Doctorow)

Google Home Continues Implementation Of Pohl's Joymaker
'It is a transponder connecting you with the central computing facilities of the city in which you reside on a shared-time, self-programming basis.' - Frederik Pohl, 1966. (re: Frederik Pohl)

The Sheep Look Up In Beijing
'The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed...' - John Brunner, 1972. (re: John Brunner)

Festo's eMotionButterfly, AirJelly And AirPenguin Robots
... Bright beings darted through the hot light.' - Rudy Rucker, 1988. (re: Rudy Rucker)

Griff 300 Octocopter Carries You And Friend
'The cab came floating down out of the sky...' - James Blish, 1957. (re: James Blish)

Talkspace Anonymous Therapy App
'Stonkered or clutched or quite simply going insane, someone reaches for the phone...' - John Brunner, 1975. (re: John Brunner)

Dr. McCoy, Your 'Salt Shaker' Scanner Is Ready
Bones would be so pleased. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Actors Reject, Makers Embrace, Posthumous Movie Resurrection
'Suddenly firmed and we saw ''Adam Selene.'' - Robert Heinlein, 1966. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Robot Animals Set To 'Spy in the Wild'
'[The electric sheep], sophisticated piece of hardware that it was, chomped away in simulated contentment...' - Philip K. Dick, 1968. (re: Philip K. DIck)

Star Wars Speeder Bikes! On Water, By Jetovator
'Hey, wait!' Now, you don't need to say that. (re: George Lucas)

'Living Bandage' For Knee Injuries
'It can patch up a smashed and broken body.' - Clifford Simak, 1961. (re: Clifford Simak)

Ad Astra! JPL's Autonomous Undersea Drones
'Splash! The Wabbler plunged into the water...' (re: Murray Leinster)

Korea's Avatar Robot
Not quite ready to chase eight-foot tall blue aliens, but it's pretty cool! (re: Robert Heinlein)

Moon's Huge Lava Tubes Perfect For Heinlein's Bat Wings
'It's just a big volcanic bubble, two miles across...' - Robert Heinlein, 1957. (re: Robert Heinlein)

ChainFORM Robot For Your Wrist
'...a vaguely terrifying foot-high shape, squared and angled and pointed and ANIMATE.' - Abraham Merritt, 1920. (re: Abraham Merritt)

Galaxy Note 7 Kill Switch?
Keep right on quoting regulations, Mr. Savvik. (re: Various)

Sketch Robot At World Intelligent Manufacturing Summit
When will we get cheap starving artist robots? (re: Various)

Gatebox Virtual Girlfriend Perfect For Budding Salaryman
'She is ... a congeries of software agents.' - William Gibson, 1996. (re: William Gibson)

Your 'Odortype' Is Unique!
'But we had his olfactory classification...' - Ray Cummings, 1935. (re: Ray Cummings)

Planet Buster Dead Star Vaporizes Mini-Planet
'A planet buster - that’s a Class-A oxygen bomb.' - Kendall Foster Crossen (re: Kendall Foster Crossen)

Veebot Robotic Blood Drawing ala Andromeda Strain
'The device was able to insert intravenous needles, finding veins easily.' - Michael Crichton, 1969. (re: Michael Crichton)

Solar Geoengineering Spray Cools, Heals
'the maintenance posts fire jets of tailored algae into the air stream.' - Niven and Pournelle, 1974. (re: Neal Stephenson)

New Startup 'Improbable' To Model Our World
'A machine able literally to contain the Universe Itself...' - Stanislaw Lem, 1965. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

The Hands-Free Hectare
Life on the farm - is changing toward the robotic... (re: Larry Niven)

Pay For The 3D Printer - NexD1 Kickstarter
'The works of the tiny Swiss watch were a fused, unformed mass...' - Philip K Dick, 1956. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Just Two Tricorder Xprize Finalists Remain
'I'm beginning to think I could cure a cloudy day!" (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Space-Based Sustainable Energy Policy
'The Power Planet, of course, is that vast man-made disk of metal set spinning about the sun to supply the Earth with power.' - Murray Leinster, 1931. (re: Murray Leinster)

Honda To Offer Car With Emotions
'All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition.' - Douglas Adams, 1979. (re: Douglas Adams)

Just Eat And Starship Bring You Food Via Robot
'...its underside was studded with grilled sensors.' - Bruce Sterling, 1994. (re: Bruce Sterling)

Life In Detroit's 'Agrihood' - The First In The U.S.
'countless tiny brown circles in the green fields ...occasional ruins of ancient cities...' - Philip K. Dick, 1954. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Artificial 'Hairs' To Enhance Senses Of Robots
'Migul had extended from each of the fingertips an inch-long filament of wire...' - Ray Cummings, 1931. (re: Ray Cummings)

The Point Of View Of An Autonomous Car
'It is safe to say that the new model almost revolutionized America in more ways than one...' - David H. Keller, 1935. (re: David H. Keller)

You Can't Lose The Travelmate Autonomous Suitcase - It Follows You
'...follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound.' - John Brunner, 1975. (re: John Brunner)

ibotn Toddler-Care Mini-Robot
'She's not like a machine. She's like a person. A living person.' - Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Nuclear Batteries Based On Diamonds Last Millennia
'they just package it and ship it around to wherever people want it...' - Robert Heinlein, 1982. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Eighth Sense Emotion-Responsive Cloak
'This sensitivity to mood explains the real popularity of bio-fabrics...' - JG Ballard, 1970. (re: JG Ballard)

British Airways To Offer An Ingestible Sensor To Passengers
The modern way to get feedback from passengers. (re: Various)

Unique DNA To Foil Parts Counterfeiters
'... the only molecule, a unique protein amino acid, which could not be duplicated.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965. (re: Philip K. DIck)

MIT Researchers Predict The Future From Still Photos
'What I have in this camera is not a record of what you did just now but what will go on here in the next half hour...'- Philip K. Dick, 1964. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Mini Robot Uses 2 mm Surgical Tools
'... surgical tool - blades, tweezers, probes - so fine you could just see them with the naked eye.' - Raymond Z. Gallun, 1939. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Childhood Dreams Of Space Realized! Space Junk Problem Solved!
'Give the noble daydreams a rest, you preachy rookie. Astronauts are wage slaves like everyone else!' - Planets, 2003. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Writhing Robotic Tentacle Uses Laser To Chop Nuke Hardware
'... long, flexible, glittering tentacles... swinging and rattling about its strange body.' - HG Wells, 1898. (re: HG Wells)

LBNP Device Not Quite 'Artificial Gravity'
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses..' - Murray Leinster, 1953. (re: Murray Leinster)

China's XPNAV 1 To Use X-Ray Pulsars For Navigation
'For a hyperspace jump, you need at least four beacons for an accurate fix.' - Harry Harrison, 1956. (re: George O. Smith)

Artificial Muscle Material Is Self-Healing, Super Stretchy
Battletech! (re: Various)

Google Zero-Shot Translation Gives Star Trek Fans Hope
"This is your opponent!" - Gene Roddenberry, 1967. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Moley Kitchen Robot Ready By 2018
'...the electric cook was stirring empty nothing in a pan, with a zeal worthy a dozen eggs.' - Elizabeth Bellamy, 1899. (re: Elizabeth Bellamy)

Tricking Cells Into Making Silicon Chips
'Fabricated by genetically engineered metal affinity bacteria...' - Marvel, 1984. (re: Unknown)

AI Lip Reading Better Than Human, Like HAL 9000
Nothing to worry about, until computers control most vital systems. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

PLEN2 DIY Robot Cleaner Steals Your Heart
'I developed it to clean floors...' - Robert Heinlein, 1956. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Disney Hopping Robot, From Disney Research
'...vast, unerring, twenty-meter leaps.' - Bruce Sterling, 1994. (re: Bruce Sterling)

DURUS Robot Walks Like You Do, Maybe To Work
'The heavy-duty robots marched back and forth...' - Daniel Keyes, 1952. (re: Daniel Keyes)

Will Astronauts Get iPads In Space?
'He would plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship's information circuit'- Arthur C. Clarke, 1968. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Uber's Robotics Plans Could Use Advice From SF Authors
'He was expecting disconsolately to be carted by the machine off to the nearest police station...' - Charles Stross, 2007. (re: Charles Stross)

Feeling A Poke On Your Robotic Hand
'Take care, sir.' (re: George Lucas)

Arctic Cities Crumble As Permafrost Melts
'The tapes stretch several kilometers in each direction.' - Robert Silverberg, 1970. (re: Robert Silverberg)

Double Charging Textile Obviates Clunky Dune Stillsuit Boots
'... the action of the heel-powered pumps that drove his still suit.' - Frank Herbert, 1969. (re: Frank Herbert)

Autonomous Oz Weeding Robot
"Got yourself a runaway pest controller.' - Michael Crichton, 1985. (re: Michael Crichton)

Deep Brain Stimulation Soon Without Surgery
'I sat down at my mood organ and I experimented.' - Philip K. Dick, 1968. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Rosemont Hotel Dubai Has Lobby Rainforest
'The braided waterfalls and hanging gardens that spilled down the arcology's levels..' - Paolo Bacigalupi, 2015. (re: Paolo Bacigalupi)

Sip From Your Ford When Catchpocket Shows Dewsparkle
'... living on reclaimed moisture from his own breath.' - Frank Herbert, 1965. (re: Frank Herbert)

Drowning? Lifeguard Drones Overhead!
'The death-reversal equipment is on its way...'- Frederk Pohl, 1965. (re: Frederik Pohl)

Elections In Science Fiction
'WE ARE READY TO PROCEED WITH THE TABULATION.' - James Blish, 1957. (re: James Blish.)

When Did Chess Computers Seem Unbeatable?
'A human simply can't beat a robotic expert.' Clifford Simak, 1951. (re: Clifford Simak)

Hurdl PIXL Wearable Helps Fans Connect With Stars
Like Macross Plus! (re: Various)

Will Future Games Require Hallucinogens ala Phil Dick?
'The final packaged product Can-D, made life bearable for over one million unwilling expatriates from Terra...' - Philip K. Dick, 1965. (re: Philip K. Dick )

DARPA Drone Distinguishes Soldiers And Civilians
I'm not sure I want to talk to ED-209... (re: Various)

Robo-Dolphin Demonstrates Porpoising
'With one fluid motion, it surged forward, plunged, and was gone.' - Michael Swanwick, 2002. (re: Michael Swanwick)

Vahana, The Airbus Flying Taxi
'The cab came floating down out of the sky at the intersection.' (re: James Blish)

Dubai Considers Robocop
'This was a nice-looking hunk of machinery. - Harry Harrison, 1958. (re: Harry Harrison)

GyroGlove Idea For Parkinson's Was Suggested In 1926
'The gyroscope was revolving at the rate of three thousand revolutions a minute, and the slight humming was hardly noticeable...' - Ellis Parker Butler, 1926 (re: Ellis Parker Butler)

Otto Self-Driving Truck Kit Delivers Budweiser Beer
'Trucks gulped packages and scurried like beetles...' - Poul Anderson, 1956. (re: Poul Anderson)

Airnest Drone Flight Logging Tool
'He reached to unsnap the cartograph from his belt.'- Jack Williamson, 1931. (re: Jack Williamson)

Untethered Drone Gets Wireless Power
'We'll use my 'broomstick'.' - Robert Heinlein, 1942. (re: Robert Heinlein)

ESA Plans Akon Projectile To Europa ala Jules Verne
'... might [it] not be possible to project a shot up to the moon?' Jules Verne, 1867. (re: Jules Verne)

Transparent OLED TV By Panasonic
It's the look of things to come. (re: HG Wells)

Shape-Memory Metal Transforms Millions Of Times
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.' - Samuel R. Delany (re: Samuel R. Delany)

Advertising Drones Hover Over Traffic In Mexico
'Blurbflies are allowd to travel the streets, buzzing their adverts alive and direct...' - Jeff Noon, 2000. (re: Jeff Noon)

How Can Amazon Patent A Voice-Controlled Drone?
''Tight mid-shot...' he told it.' Karen Traviss, 2004. (re: Karen Traviss)

'North Sense' Wearable Piercing From Cyborg Nest
'The fingers opened from the many-scaled stellarimeter grafted onto his palm.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1966. (re: Samuel R. Delany)

proCover Smart Sock Prosthetic Limb Enhancement
'Series of chemelectric afferent nerve-analogues, which permitted it to gauge to an ounce...' - Roger Zelazny, 1965. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Robots And AIs Will Replace Humans At 7 Percent Of U.S. Jobs
'And Mike took on endless new jobs.' - Robert Heinlein, 1966. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Human Doctors Still Better Than Computers
'Nowadays surgery was normally done by autodocs...' - Larry Niven, 1966. (re: Larry Niven)

FEDOR Humanoid Robot To Join Russians In Space
Am enjoying view of Russian robot. (re: Various)

BMW Self-Balancing Motorcycle - Never Put Feet On Road
'He had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems...'- Bruce Sterling, 1998. (re: Bruce Sterling)

MicroTug Is A Micro Robot Beast
'And it had been dragging something...' - Maurice A. Hugi (Eric Frank Russel), 1941. (re: Maurice A. Hugi)

Linear Elastic Actuator in Parallel (LEAP) - It's A Hopping Robot
'...Probably the most grotesque forms of transportation ever invented.'- Isaac Asimov, 1954. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Smart Glove Controls 3D Printed Robotic Arm (Waldo!)
'Waldo flexed and extended his fingers gently; the... waldoes... followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'- Robert Heinlein, 1942. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Wearables For Animals Totally A Thing
'Twin deformities on either side of his skull had been engineered to house sensor units.' - William Gibson, 1981. (re: William Gibson)

Tomatoes From Sun And Seawater
'Hydroponics. Gotta almost do it, if I'm going way out to Mars without much supplies.' - Raymond Z. Gallun, 1961. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Hadrian X Construction Robot From Fastbrick Robotics
Hope Hadrian is never a runaway! (re: Michael Crichton)

Confirm 100 Exoplanets At Once! (With Video)
'My automatic astronomical instruments searching for a habitable planet.' - Edmond Hamilton, 1936. (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Blue Origin Tests 'Escape Pod' Capability
'I'm going to regret this...' - George Lucas, 1976. (re: George Lucas)

3D Printed Car Can Launch POV Drone
Just the thing for the Runaway squad - and you and me. (re: Michael Crichton)

Japanese AI Forms Suicidally Depressed Personality
'I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.' - Douglas Adams, 1979. (re: Douglas Adams)

Duoskin Control Tattoo
'Three rows of four colored dots appeared on the heel of my left hand.'- John Varley, 1992. (re: John Varley)

Space Elevator Planned By Obayashi Corp
'And so to establish an elevator system linking Earth to space?' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1976. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Robot Deltu Is Ready To Play With You
'...A rattling pressing of the buttons.' - Schachner and Zagat, 1931. (re: Schachner and Zagat)

Luigi The Sewer Inspection Robot From MIT
Luigi is the second prototype - the first was? Mario, natch. (re: Various)

Smart Fabric Can Harvest Energy From Sunshine And Motion
'The clothes and jewellery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.' - Alastair Reynolds, 2005. (re: Alastair Reynolds)

IBM's Neuromorphic Chip
'The full sensitivity of the neuristor brain was not appreciated at first.' - Roger Zelazny, 1976. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Russia's Protective Ferrite Fabric
'His suit-shield sucked in the energy and discharged it...'- Philip K. Dick, 1954. (re: Philip K Dick)

MiniMed 670G - First 'Artificial Pancreas' Approved By FDA
'Proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...' - Philip K. Dick, 1964. (re: Philip K Dick)

iPal Nanny Robot Will Raise Your Kids
'Playfully, Nanny caught Bobby's arm with her grapple and drew him to her.' - Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K Dick)

NVIDIA's DAVE2 Autonomous Car Learns From Drivers
'So we took pictures of Guzub making a Three Planets...' - Anthony Boucher, 1943. (re: Anthony Boucher)

Robots Don't Need To Be Humanoid
'People are used to android robots... They'll be scared of your unhuman-looking contraptions...' -Anthony Boucher, 1943. (re: Anthony Boucher)

Tractor Beams? They're Working On It
'Brandon swung mighty tractor beams...' - Doc Smith, 1931. (re: EE Doc Smith)

Hi-Yo Modobag! Away!
'A tumblebug does not give a man dignity...' - Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Snap Specs - Snapchat Spectacles - Are Video Glasses
'The old woman laid her wire-knitting aside and fixed them with the bug-eyed, opaque gape...' David Brin, 1990. (re: David Brin)

Reading A Scroll Burned To Charcoal
'The scope was adjusted to generate... an image of the lower section of the book.' - James P. Hogan, 1977 (re: James P. Hogan)

Robot Arrested In Moscow
They should have thrown a net over him. (re: Various)

Oh Great, Fence-Climbing Robots
How long till they add the acid-tipped stingers? (re: Michael Crichton)

Software Agents Fight Unseen On The Web
'...Worms and counter-worms loose on the data-net.' - John Brunner, 1975. (re: John Brunner)

Sandisk 1 Terabyte SD Memory Card Surfaces
'They should be Welton Fine-Grains, or they would be too bulky to ship...' - Robert Heinlein, 1973. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Carbyne, The Ultimate Form Of Carbon
'A continuous pseudo-one dimensional diamond crystal...'- Arthur C. Clarke, 1978. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Bradbury's Method Used In Search For Bombing Suspect
'He imagined thousands on thousands of faces peering into yards, into alleys...' - Ray Bradbury, 1953. (re: Ray Bradbury)

New Laser Space Debris Clearing More Subtle Than Clarke's
Rather than nudge them up, nudge them down. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Robots Learn To Swarm Safely
'They were bronzy gleams of smooth motion...' - Isaac Asimov, 1944. (re: Bruce Sterling)

Samsung's Smart Ring
'Crayn glanced at his finger watch...' HB Fyfe, 1951. (re: HB Fyfe)

Proposal To Use Lasers To Analyze Asteroids
'Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.' - EC Tubb, 1958. (re: EC Tubb)

Autonomous Sumo Robot Wrestling Video
'The expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler...' - Roger Zelazny, 1968. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Fashion Needs To Step Up Technology Education
'Keeping up with advances in fashion is almost as easy as reading - if you're reading science fiction.' (re: Various)

Youbionic 3D Printed Hand A Dark Knight Masterpiece
'A self-contained robot of precision quality usually joined to his right wrist' (re: Philip K Dick)

Robots Now Know How To Cause Pain
'THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT...' (re: Harlan Ellison)

Once A Jolly Swagbot Camped By A Billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree. (re: Larry Niven)

Juno Gets Close To Jupiter, Fiction Gets Closer!
Amazing Juno spacecraft cozies up to the biggest planet in our solar system. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

NASA Submarine For Titan
'Straight away from the shore it swam, seeing nothing but flecks of paraffin...' - Michael Swanwick, 2002. (re: Michael Swanwick)

Sketching Robots May Displace Starving Artists
Jeez, robots, leave us with something. (re: Various)

Three Clues To Limb Regeneration
'Forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers...' - Frank Herbert, 1972. (re: Frank Herbert)

Soft Caterpillar Robot Powered By Light
'the spread-out "puddle" shape she used for soaking up sun...' - Rudy Rucker, 1997. (re: Rudy Rucker)

Converting Low Temp Waste Heat To Electricity
'Our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.' (re: Larry Niven)

Flex Robot Surgeon - Let's Hope You're Sedated
There are other insertion points, right, Neo? (re: Various)

Liquid Metal Terminator Development Hums Right Along
More research is needed - check! (re: Philip K Dick)

Kiwi Dominos Drone Pizza Delivery
If you can deliver diapers, you can deliver pizzas. (re: Robert Heinlein)

MIT Robot Helps Out In Delivery Room
Oooee nooomaa oooee. And you thought today's doctors were hard to understand. (re: George Lucas)

Self-Healing Textiles! Say Goodbye To Torn Jeans
'The constant renewal of the fibers, repairing any faults...' - JG Ballard, 1970. (re: JG Ballard)

Fleets Of Ford Autonomous Cars In 5 Years
'He urgently addressed the vehicle's AI."Can't we go any faster?' - Allan Dean Foster, 2006. (re: Allan Dean Foster)

Electric Head Patch Helps PTSD Patients
'Don't confuse this with the little ten amp neurosis models.' - Robert Sheckley, 1956. (re: Robert Sheckley)

MEDi Robot Calms The Nervous Patient
'Specially programmed stabilizing surrogate devices.' - Anne McCaffrey, 1990. (re: Anne McCaffrey)

NASA's Interplanetary Internet DTN
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.' - George O. Smith, 1942. (re: George O. Smith)

Superior Morals For Autonomous Cars
Exemplars of military and civic virtue. (re: Keith Laumer)

Housekeeping Robots Easy To Imagine, Tough To Make
George Jetson had it easy. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Augmented Reality On Construction Sites
'The walls had become blue glass...' - Niven and Barnes, 1992. (re: Niven and Barnes)

Moorebot Personal Assistant Robot
'...a full-size 38-tube fully automatic companion for you!' - Frederik Pohl, 1954. (re: Frederik Pohl)

One-Shot Gene Therapy Cure $665K
One shot - one cure. Guaranteed. (re: Various)

Laser 'Autonomous Target Selection' Now Available To Curiosity Rover
And, given the birthday situation, is this a good time? (re: Various)

Ultrasonic Wireless ‘Neural Dust’ Sensors For Medical Monitoring
'These dustmotes already had sensors and independence built in.' - Vernor Vinge, 2005. (re: Vernor Vinge)

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