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"...being predictive, being right about the future, is not the point of any given story or novel. The point is about exploring as wide a range of possibilities as possible."
- Peter Watts
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| Robot Waiter | ||
| Robotic restaurant servitor. |
As far as I know, this is the first use of this phrase.
| We made our way to a grill one level below the theatre floor, near the moving sidewalk. I ordered some chops, toast and wine for two. "To think," said Miss Dolly, her face flushed, while waiting for the robot waiter, "what a marvelous show, solely with robot artists." I was glad to perceive that the entertainment had been so fascinating to her. It did seem inconceivable that anything mechanical could act with such precision without one flaw. At this juncture, the smiling face of the female robot waitress interrupted my musings and Miss Dolly's enthusiastic comments. The supper was delicious. "I am grateful for these robots, Alonzo," Miss Dolly quaintly remarked. "And, why?" 1 asked her. "One does not have to be, er . . . jealous of you fascinating men even though the waitresses are so charming." |
| Technovelgy from Flamingo: A Drama of A.D. 1950,
by Clarence Edward Heller. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Schachner and Zagat used this phrase just a year later in The Death Cloud (1931):
Philip K. Dick describes robot waiters and servitors that seem to utilize the ceiling rather than the floor space reserved for humans in The World Jones Made (1956):
We sat, Eric Bolton and I, at a parapet table atop the 200-story General Aviation Building. The efficient robot waiter of the Sky Club had cleared away the remnants of an epicurean meal. Only a bowl of golden fruit remained—globes of nectar picked in the citrus groves of California that morning.
Robot servants, suspended from the ceiling, wheeled here and there serving drinks and collecting glasses.
The robot waiter dropped like a spider from the ceiling, and Nina turned her attention to ordering.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Flamingo: A Drama of A.D. 1950
More Ideas
and Technology by Clarence Edward Heller
Tech news articles related to Flamingo: A Drama of A.D. 1950
Tech news articles related to works by Clarence Edward Heller
Robot Waiter-related
news articles:
- Robotics Jobs In The Food Industry
| Robot Hand Separate From Robot |
| Is Optimus Autonomous Or Teleoperated? |
| Robot Masseuse Rubs People The Right Way |
| Optimus Robot Can Charge Itself |
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'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
