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"People ask me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research. I just enjoy reading the stuff, and some of it sticks in my mind and fits into the stories."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Robot Music | ||
| Music created and performed entirely by robots. |
As far as I know, the earliest use of this phrase in science fiction.
| Festival of the robots. The rocky amphitheatre was lighted now — a great red glare of swaying light from a funnel to one side. And the weird pseudo-factory again was in operation. From this angle the interior of one of its huge sheds was visible. Motley conglomeration of machinery! There was a great clanking upright engine of treadles, winches and a swaying crane. Eccentric cams clattered on another giant metal contrivance, powered by the engine with an intricate system of gears and belts between them. Monstrous fly heels whirled. Pulleys and chains hoisted and dropped huge weights with rhythmic banging thuds. A cacophony of stentorious metal sounds. Raucous shrieks of electronic sirens reverberated out into the rocky darkness. A pandemonium clangor, clanking, jangling — robot music, all in full blast now for this festival of the machines. |
| Technovelgy from The Robot God,
by Ray Cummings. Published by Weird Tales in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the machine music from The Machine Stops (1909) by EM Forster, the meloderge from Saboteur of Space (1944) by Robert Abernathy, the mechanical tune-maker (1954) from The Last of the Masters by Philip K. Dick and the computer-created dub from Neuromancer by William Gibson.
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and Technology from The Robot God
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Tech news articles related to The Robot God
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Cummings
| Proof Of Robothood - Not A Person |
| Dancing Robots Taught Dance Moves |
| Factory Humanoid Robots Built By Humanoid Robots |
| Mornine Sales Robot |
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'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
