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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Robot Gun | ||
| An automated gun; typically used for sentry duty. |
The gun is enhanced with artificial intelligence and target recognition to act as a decision maker in firing.
| Hudson grunted as he set the second heavy sentry gun onto its recoil-absorbing tripod. The weapon was squat, ugly, unencumbered by sights or triggers. Vasquez locked the weapon in place, then snapped on the connectors that led from the firing mechanism to the attached motion sensor. When she was certain the comtech was out of the way, she nudged a single switch marked ACTIVATE. A small green light came to life atop the gun. On the small diagnotic readout set flush in the side, READY flashed yellow, then red. Both troopers stepped clear. Vasquez picked up a battered wastebasket that had rolled into the corridor and shouted towards the weapon's aural pickup: "Testing!" Then she threw the empty metal container out into the middle of the corridor. Both guns swiveled and let loose before the basket hit the floor, reducing the container to dime-sized shrapnel. Hudson whooped with delight. In the service tunnel that connected the buildings of the colony to the processing station and each other, a pair of robot guns sat silently, their motion scanners alert and humming. C gun surveyed the empty corridor, its ARMED light flashing green. Through a hole in the ceiling at the far end of the passageway, fog swirled in. Water condensed on bare metal walls and dripped to the floor. The gun did not fire on the falling drops. It was smarter, more selective than that, able to distinguish between harmless natural phenomena and inimical movement. The water made no attempt to advance, and so the weapon held its fire, waiting patiently for something to kill |
| From Aliens,
by Alan Dean Foster. Published by Futura Publications in 1986 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the automatic gun from The Andromeda Strain (1969), by Michael Crichton; that article contains additional historical information.
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'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
Yes, people of the future, robots will dress you.
