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"As opposed to illiteracy, where you can't read, aliteracy means that you can but you just can't be bothered. They say aliteracy is on the rise these days."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Dustmice | ||
| Tiny robotic sensors that police could set loose in a crime scene, looking for tiny clues. |
I really like the name for these items; it has a sort of Disney quality that contrasts nicely with their intended use. They do not seem to be nanotechnology, but they are very small robots indeed.
| A radio assayer hung from the track mounted in the apartment ceiling, having replaced the sniffer. Dustmice pushed through the cold stiff tendrils of once live carpet searching it for skin flakes and other debris trapped in the carpet's custom digestion. |
| From Queen of Angels,
by Greg Bear. Published by Warner Books in 1990 Additional resources -
|
I'm sure that these little robots would be very thorough; I also think that if they went across the floor in my house (after two kids), the little dustmice would run screaming out the door. And if they screamed, would their little tiny voices sound like Bob Newhart and Zsa Zsa Gabor, like in The Rescuers? Just wondering.
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory succeeded in creating what is described as "the smallest autonomous untethered robot every created." It is a one quarter of an inch cube weighing less than an ounce. It really does turn on a dime (and parks on a nickel). Shown below is a parked bot:
Read the news release at Smallest Mini-Robot. The robots are fabricated using stereolithography; read more about that on the entry for naonfax, from All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson.
Take a look at the grandparents of these little guys - the robot mice from Ray Bradbury's 1950 short story There Will Come Soft Rains.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Queen of Angels
More Ideas
and Technology by Greg Bear
Tech news articles related to Queen of Angels
Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear
Dustmice-related
news articles:
- Micromouse Robot Builders Seek The Brass Cheese
| Robots Help People Get Dressed, As Predicted In 1931 |
| Robot Snake Flies, Fights Fires |
| IPAL Chinese Robot Babysitter |
| DIY Autonomous Robot Detects Trash |
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'If you couldn't see the ads, how would you know what was fashionable?'
'Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed.'
'Had these machines in some incredible fashion been provided with brains?'
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE what we wanted and she took care of it'
'Under the lower roof there was no water, but a clear and luminous atmosphere...'
