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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear
 |
| Sales Robot (Robot Salesman) | ||
| Fully automated robots giving untiring, incessant sales pitches to customers. |
Autonomous robotic salesmen - salesrobots - are the bane of consumers in this Dick classic.
| Robot-salesmen were everywhere, gesturing, pleading, shrilling. One started after him and he quickened his pace. It scurried along, chanting its pitch and trying to attract his attention, all the way up the hill to his living-unit. It didn't give up until he stooped over, snatched up a rock, and hurled it futilely. He scrambled in the house and slammed the doorlock after him. The robot hesitated, then turned and raced after a woman with an armload of packages toiling up the hill. She tried vainly to elude it, without success.
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| Technovelgy from Sales Pitch,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Future Science Fiction Magazine in 1954 Additional resources -
|
The picture is taken from the original story as it appeared in the magazine.
This story has too many good quotes to pass up:
Sales robots are also in use in Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel Return from the Stars.
Morris pushed wearily past the salesrobot, up the sidewalk toward the residential-block that contained his living-unit. The robot followed a few steps, then forgot him and hurried after another grim-faced commuter.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Sales Pitch
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to Sales Pitch
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Sales Robot (Robot Salesman)-related
news articles:
- Sales Robot IRI-Millennia Opens Gates Of Hell
- Robovie Robot Gives The Sales Pitch
- ENON Upgraded To Sales Robot
- Robots In Advertising Mostly CGI, Fortunately
- Sales Robots More Persistent Than Humans
- Mall Robotic Ad Won't Leave You Alone
- OSHbot, Lowe's Robotic Shopping Assistants
- Norlin Shoe Drone Robot UAV In-Store Delivery Thing
- Sprint Wants Sales Robots
- Artificially Intelligent Poster - Advert That Writes Itself
- The Coming Hell Of ChatGPT Salesbots
| Robot Gas Station Attendant Pumps Gas For You |
| SnapBot Robots - You Choose Their Legs And They Choose Their Gaits |
| Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots |
| What's The Best Way To Ship And Unpack Humanoid Robots? |
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'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
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'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
The Roujin Z system provides care to fully bedridden patients - and then some!
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'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
