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"The wealth of the universe is all over your head. We need to take command of the solar system to gain that wealth..."
- Larry Niven
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| Scuttle-bot | ||
| An all-purpose surveillance robot that climbed rather than flew. |
I like to think that the clever name of this robot is back-formed from "scuttlebutt", a nautical term for gossip or rumors. The scuttlebutt was a ship's equivalent to a water cooler, a cask of fresh water for drinking.
| A scuttle-bot could climb a tree and anchor itself, just listening and watching, sniffing and measuring, constantly reporting back. Usually scuttle-bots worked in teams, with one on the ground and several more at various heights all the way up. |
| Technovelgy from Hella,
by David Gerrold. Published by DAW Books in 2020 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robot tracking device from Vulcan's Hammer (1960) by Philip K. Dick, the robot snake spy from Mariposa (2009) by Greg Bear and the tracer bird from Changeling (1980) by Roger Zelazny.
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'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
