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"I was perfectly satisfied to write science fiction knowing that it would pay very little, that it would be seen by only a very few people."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Micro-Android (Micro-Robot) | ||
| An extremely tiny robot or nanobot. |
| Doc, Jan, and I kept working on the smaller micro-robots. But during an occasional spare hour we’d send our half- inch alter-bodies out into the cold to look around the ancient camp. We found nothing of interest except a splinter of diamond set in a metal shank, A cutting tool?
"Micro-androids, or the equivalent, in relation to beings not human! Is that what they are? Then it is another demonstration of the advantages of this improved, lab-developed basis for life — venturing into space unprotected, being almost indestructible — even going down into The Small! ... Or could it have evolved naturally?” |
| Technovelgy from Dawn of the Demigods,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Planet Stories in 1954 Additional resources -
|
Tiny robotic bodies make for tiny inscriptions:
I even tried writing backwards so that Scharber could read my message normally from inside bis helmet. Where the needle of heat touched, plastic seethed, and a visible line was left.
I wrote:
It’s us, Scharber. Lanvin, the Harvers. Changed. Micro-androids now — like race of Xian origin. Friendly. Go home, Scharber. But please send radiogram. Urge imperative need to keep our bodies alive. Will return to them. A million thanks for everything.
It was like writing on the sky. My arm swung wide. But the range of about half an inch, with the rod’s energy roaring at full, was about right to give me a normal sized script. The jet’s kick was trying to break my arm, otherwise it wasn’t too hard to do.
Compare to the microrob from A Game of Unchance (1964) by Philip K Dick. 
(Micro-Robot writing in 'Dawn of the Demigods' by Raymond Z. Gallun)
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'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
