Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I believe in limited government, and the 20th century has been the century of government. The data is uniform. The government has failed at every single task it has set out to do, with the exception of waging war."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Rat Thing | ||
| A guard cyborg created from a living animal. |
| The body is Rottweiler-sized, segmented into overlapping hard plates like those of a rhinoceros. The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's. It must be the tail that makes people refer to it as a Rat Thing, because that's the only ratlike part - incredibly long and flexible.
The grass under the Rat Thing is beginning to smoke. "Careful. Supposedly they have really nasty isotopes inside," Hiro says behind her... "A radioactive substance that makes heat. That's its energy source." "How do you turn it off?" "You don't. It keeps making heat until it melts." The body converges to a sharp nose. In the front it bends down sharply, and there is a black canopy, raked sharply like the windshield of a fighter plane. If the Rat Thing has eyes, this is where it looks out. |
| From Snow Crash,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam in 1992 Additional resources -
|
Compare the Rat Thing to the slamhound from William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero, and of course the mechanical hound from Ray Bradbury's 1953 classic Fahrenheit 451.
Thanks to Jerry for suggesting this item.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Snow Crash
More Ideas
and Technology by Neal Stephenson
Tech news articles related to Snow Crash
Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson
Rat Thing-related
news articles:
- MIT's Cheetah Robot Runs Easier Than Real Cheetah
- MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
- WildCat Runs Faster Than You, Untethered
- Why, Oh Why, Must We Develop Robots That Run Faster Than I Do?
- Cheetah 2 Robot Now Leaps Obstacles To Get You
| Flying Dragon Robot Transforms In Mid-Air |
| MXene Hydrogel Skin For Robots Flexes And Senses |
| Drywall Robot Looking For Sheetrock |
| Robots Help People Get Dressed, As Predicted In 1931 |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'The big car was slowing down, its computer brain sensing an exit ahead.'
'They're lovely! - titanalloy struts as light and strong as bird-bones...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up [to orbit] to the Hospital...'
'Yes, strangely enough there was still sufficient water beneath the surface of Vesta.'
'... a tiny, rocket-powered projectile, drove towards the mysterious bulk.'
