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 prefer working by artificial light."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Robot Pianist | ||
| A robot learns the fine art of playing classical music on the piano. |
The Maestro instructs his robot Rollo (the Rolleindex Personal Robot, model M-3) in playing an unusual apparatus - the piano.
"No, not for yours, Rollo," the Maestro said softly. "Mozart and Chopin are not for vacuum tubes and fuses and copper wire. They are for flesh and blood and human tears..."
"I should like to be taught how to produce these notes on the piano. I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks."
After the Maestro instructs Rollo, he goes to sleep, leaving Rollo at the piano. The Maestro awakens, hearing beautiful music.
"Mozart? Chopin?" The duralloy sphere that was Rollo's head shone stark and featureless, its immediate surface unbroken but for twin vision lenses. "The terms are not included in my memory banks."
| The light over the music rack was an eerie island in the brown shadows of the studio. Rollo sat at the keyboard, prim, inhuman, rigid, twin lenses focused somewhere off into the shadows.
The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting - they were living entities, separate, somehow, from the machined perfection of his body. |
| From Virtuoso,
by Herbert Goldstone. Published by Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Virtuoso
More Ideas
and Technology by Herbert Goldstone
Tech news articles related to Virtuoso
Tech news articles related to works by Herbert Goldstone
Robot Pianist-related
news articles:
- Miuro Autonomous Music Robot
- Robot Taiko Drummers Give Up Factory Day Jobs
- Jambot Music Improvisation Robot
- ETH Quadcopters Perform Jingle Bells On Real Piano
- HRP-2 Auld Lang Syne Theremin
- Hexapod Robot Scuttles Through Beethoven
- Melomics Avant Garde Computer Musician
- Jazz AI Compliments Of DARPA
- Ardu McDuino, Bagpipe Robot
| Abundant Robotics Autonomous Apple Harvester Robot |
| China Building Robot Wives |
| Stan, Robot Valet, Will Drag Your Car Away |
| Jibo Home Robot Says Goodbye, Is Killswitched |
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.
|
'... they placed the brain in a special solution, having all the properties of Nursing the brain cells.'
'... Ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.'
'Twin robotic arms with gleaming three-foot sword blades unfolded from the forward hydraulic assemblies...'
'He made an adjustment, pointed the tube at the wall beside Etzwane, and projected a cone of light.'
'A metal... light as cork and stronger than steel...'
'Ken lay full-length in the padded body compartment, his feet resting on the controlling bars of the directional planes, hands on the torpoon's engine levers.'
'... little machines, that went from plant to plant... cutting off the ripe fruit.'
'Recharge the batteries... in almost every town and village...'
'...a tiny, rocket-powered projectile, drove towards the mysterious bulk. It hit, exploding into a cloud of incandescent vapour.'
'The flycycles were miracles of compact design.'
