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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Automat | ||
| Unusual name for an intelligent robot; short for "automaton"? |
This is an unusual word; in the early part of the Twentieth century, the word "automat" was most commonly used for a place where what we would call automatic vending machines would provide packaged or plated food in exchange for coins.
| “So be it. Scarecrow,’’ he said, holding his features impassive; for he was half afraid that the weird mechanical mind of the automat had somehow gained abnormal wisdom through its derangement, and could read his face. |
| Technovelgy from Mad Robot,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1936 Additional resources -
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Tech news articles related to works by Raymond Z. Gallun
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'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
