Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Writing about the future, I have a vested interest in there being a future for me to write about."
- John Brunner
 |
| Ruum Spherical Robot | ||
| An autonomous spherical robot, possibly liquid metal, self-energizing, of alien design; a collector. |
The Ruum was left on Earth uncounted ages ago - by accident:
“Excellency,” he said uneasily, “I regret to inform you that because of a technician’s carelessness, a Type H-p Ruum has been left behind on the third planet, together with anything it may have collected.”
The Commander’s triangular eyes hooded momentarily, but when he spoke his voice was level.
“How was the ruum set?”
“For a maximum radius of 30 miles, and 160 pounds plus or minus fifteen.”
There was silence for several seconds, then the Commander said: “We cannot reverse course now. In a few weeks we’ll be returning, and can pick up the ruum then. I do not care to have one of those costly, self-energizing models charged against my ship. You will see,” he ordered coldly, “that the individual responsible is severely punished.”
But at the end of its run, in the neighborhood of Rigel, the cruiser met a flat, ring-shaped raider; and when the inevitable fire-fight was over, both ships, semi-molten, radioactive, and laden with dead, were starting a billion year orbit around the star.
And on the earth, it was the age of reptiles.
As our story begins, prospector Jim Irwin has been dropped off in a remote, unexplored part of the Canadian Rockies.
The cruiser Ilkor had just gone into her interstellar overdrive beyond the orbit of Pluto when a worried officer reported to the Commander.
| ...he rounded a grassy knoll to come upon a sight that made him stiffen to a halt, his jaw dropping.
It was like some enterprising giant’s outdoor butcher shop: a great assortment of animal bodies, neatly lined up in a triple row that extended almost as far as the eye could see... Jim Irwin had once worked with mercury, and for a second it seemed to him that a half-filled leather sack of the liquid metal had rolled into the clearing. For the quasi-spherical object moved with just such a weighty, fluid motion. But it was not leather; and what appeared at first a disgusting wartiness, turned out on closer scrutiny to be more like the functional projections of some outlandish mechanism. Whatever the thing was, he had little time to study it, for after the spheroid had whipped out and retracted a number of metal rods with bulbous, lens-like structures at their tips, it rolled towards him at a speed of about five miles an hour. And from its purposeful advance, the man had no doubt that it meant to add him to the pathetic heap of living-dead specimens. Uttering an incoherent exclamation, Jim sprang back a number of paces, unslinging his rifle. The ruum that had been left behind was still some 30 yards off, approaching at that moderate but invariable velocity, an advance more terrifying in its regularity than the headlong charge of a mere brute beast... When the ruum was six feet away, he saw gleaming finger-hooks flick from warty knobs, and a hollow, stinglike probe, dripping greenish liquid, poised snakily between them. The man turned and fled... Springing to a hillock, he looked back over the grassy plain. The afternoon sun cast long shadows, but it was easy enough to spot the pursuing ruum, still oozing along on Jim’s trail... But there was no change of technique by the ruum; seemingly intent on the footprints of its prey, the strange sphere rippled along...
|
| Technovelgy from The Ruum,
by Arthur Porges. Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1953 Additional resources -
|
The Rovers from the late 1960's sci-fi television series The Prisoner were security balls of various sizes.
(The Rover seeks its prey)
In the television show, the Rovers were living creatures modeled to some extent on blowfish. They could alter their size and were equipped with toxins that could incapacitate prisoners who tried to escape (they would give chase to the fastest moving living creature). They also served as eyes and ears for the Village monitors. They were adapted for different environments, including undersea use.
SF fans (as well as fans of supermacromation) remember the early 1980's series The Terrahawks, which had spherical robots called Zeroids were used to fight the evil witch-like alien Zelda.
(Sargeant Major Zero and Zeroid 18)
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Ruum
More Ideas
and Technology by Arthur Porges
Tech news articles related to The Ruum
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur Porges
Ruum Spherical Robot-related
news articles:
- Inflatable Spherical Robots May Explore Mars
- OrbSwarm Autonomous Spherical Robotics
- Jollbot Robot Ball Jumps, Bounces And Rolls
- Rotundus Groundbot Robotic Spherical Guardian Video
- Spherical Robot Lego Mindstorms NXT-Based
- Smart Ball Android Spherical Robot
- Sphero Robot Ball Is Smartphone-Controlled
| Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot |
| Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin |
| Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing Runs With His G1 Robot Army |
| Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
