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"it slowly dawned on me that the landscape of science is maybe what interests people a great deal in science fiction."
- Gregory Benford
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| Chevaline | ||
| An open robotic vehicle for one person, shaped like a horse. |
Seems to derive from the French word for an equestrian statue. Most of these seem to be large public monuments, as opposed to small garden statues.
| A horse, or something built around the same general plan, was coming down the street at a hard gallop. Its hooves did not make the pocking noise of iron horseshoes. Bud realized it was a chevaline - a four-legged robot thingy. |
| Technovelgy from The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
As unique as it is, there are a variety of references to this sort of conveyance. See also references to FESS in A Warlock In Spite Of Himself (Christopher Stasheff) and to Black in The Changing Land (Roger Zelazny). As it happens, FESS also had retractable rubber pads to let it gallop noiselessly. Both of these are fantasy novels that make use of the special place that a robotic vehicle of "cold iron" has in worlds where organic magic works.
In case you feel the urge to actually see robotic carts and such wandering around the countryside, you might want to visit the Robot Vehicle Range in Albuquerque, NM.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Diamond Age
More Ideas
and Technology by Neal Stephenson
Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson
Chevaline-related
news articles:
- R7 Ridable Robot
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
