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"...a market economy is essentially a genetic algorithm for solving resource allocation problems..."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Robot Harvester | ||
| A large autonomous robot that moves through the fields taking in grain. |
| ON THE horizon the red-gold orb of the sun hung low and huge. The first shadows of approaching dusk were stretching and deepening over the pale yellow sea of wheat that spread in all directions as far as the eye could see. The field seemed to undulate under the quickening sweep of the evening breeze, heightening the sea-like effect. It was late summer of 2020.
Trevor glanced at his watch. Time to knock off. He laid aside the textbook he had been studying, rose to his feet, and stretched. He went to one of the opened windows of the control tower and looked out. The angular shape of the robot harvester was small in the wheat field to the west. It moved with a deliberate ponderousness through the lake of grain, clicking and humming softly. Trevor went to the remote control panel and turned the switch which would reduce the robot harvester to inactivity for the day. Then he closed the windows and left the. tower, climbing down the spiraling metal stairs to where his gyro stood on the ground outside. He climbed in, sent the gyro skimming toward the buildings of the farm five miles to the south. It was a nice job, Trevor decided as he flew. |
| Technovelgy from Forever is Too Long,
by Chester S. Geier. Published by Fantastic Adventures in 1944 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the field minder from But Who Can Replace A Man (1958) by Brian Aldiss, 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 robot farmer from The Turning Wheel (1954) by Philip K. Dick, 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 and the robot crab from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson.
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