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"The world is really so surreal these days that it's necessary for us to blunt it somehow in order to stay sane. The artist functions to short-circuit the buffering mechanism, so that people can occasionally perceive the weirdness of things as they are."
- William Gibson
 |
| Robot Door | ||
| Automated door has some decision-making capabilities, in addition to speech recognition capabilities. |
| They came to Captain Taylor's offices. One of the guards rang the buzzer.
"Who is it?" the robot door demanded shrilly. "Commander Morrison orders this man put under the Captain's care." ...The robot's relay's clicked while it made up its mind. "The commander sent you?" "Yes. Open up." "You may enter," the robot conceded finally. It drew its locks back, releasing the door. |
| From Colony,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Compare this item to the self-satisfied door from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The earliest reference is probably the phonographic lock from A Journey to the Year 2025, by Clement Fezandie, published in 1921.
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