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"If I can make you see the world the way I see it, then you will automatically think the way I think."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Robot Farm | ||
| A farm staffed and run entirely by robots. |
This is the first instance of this phrase in science fiction.
| From thousands of noiseless, nervewrackingly unreal factories weapons and equipment poured forth. Silently triphibian-sections swung together, interwove, were flawlessly joined. In an unending slow-paced stream the completed transports slid stealthily into the air, bound on test runs outside the atmosphere and in the depths of the ocean on whose restless surface their final destiny would be worked out.
From robot farm and mine streams of grain and metal flowed to dumps near ports of embarkation. There too went the barges that would carry the materials on the last leg of their journey. People gazed in awe at these gargantuan stockpiles. |
| Technovelgy from Let Freedom Ring,
by Fritz Leiber. Published by Amazing Stories in 1950 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the automatic cultivators from Piracy Preferred (1930) by John W. Campbell, the conscious farm machines from The Hidden Colony (1935) by Otfrid von Hanstein, the field minder from Who Can Replace A Man (1963) by Brian Aldiss, the Robomule from Bill the Galactic Hero (1965) by Harry Harrison, the self-guided tractor from At the Bottom of a Hole (1966) by Larry Niven, the robot crab from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson and the agricultural robot pest controller from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Let Freedom Ring
More Ideas
and Technology by Fritz Leiber
Tech news articles related to Let Freedom Ring
Tech news articles related to works by Fritz Leiber
| Atlas Robot Makes Uncomfortable Movements |
| Humanoid Robots Tickle The Ivories |
| Golf Ball Test Robot Wears Them Out |
| PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers |
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
'There were cubic miles of it, and it glistened like a silvery Christmas tree...'
'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...'
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
