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Drones Participate In Buddhist Rites

A wooden carved statue of Amida Tathāgata and Buddha drones welcoming Amida at the Ryukanji Temple, Bunkyo, Japan.

Science fiction writers have long combined technology and religion. In Roger Zelazny's brilliant Hugo award-winning 1967 novel Lord of Light, he describes a pray-o-mat:

It was a machine, gleaming and metallic, before which they moved.

A man inserted a coin into the mouth of a steel tiger. The machine began to purr. He pressed buttons cast in the likenesses of animals and demons. There came then a flashing of lights along the lengths of the Nagas, the two holy serpents who twisted about the transparent face of the machine.

The man drew down upon the lever that grew from the side of the machine cast in the likeness of the tail of a fish.

A holy blue light filled the interior of the machine; the serpents pulsed redly; and there, in the midst of the light and a soft music that had begun to play a prayer wheel swung into view and began spinning at a furious pace.

The man wore a beatific expression.
(Read more about Zelazny's pray-o-mat)

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