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"The only real way to maintain privacy is to be uninteresting. It may be that privacy is a passing fad."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Robot Crab | ||
| An automated gardener. |
Every passage from this award-winning novel has a sort of lyrical beauty, even when describing common objects.
| It was Sunday afternoon and he stood with Molly in a sort of courtyard. White boulders, a stand of green bamboo, black gravel raked into smooth waves. A gardener, a thing like a large metal crab, was tending the bamboo... The robot crab moved toward them, picking its way over the waves of gravel. Its bronze carapace might have been a thousand years old. When it was within a meter of her boots, it fired a burst of light, then froze for an instant, analyzing data obtained... The crab had altered course to avoid her, but she kicked it with a smooth precision, the silver boot-tip clanging on the silver carapace. The thing fell on its back, but the bronze limbs soon righted it. |
| From Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
The problem of enclosing a power source, mechanics for movement and functionality, sensors and a brain to interpret sensory input is a difficult one. One solution used is to have the robot pause to consider its data.
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 robot farmer from The Turning Wheel (1954) by Philip K. Dick, 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 and the agricultural robot pest controller from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Neuromancer
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
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Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
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- Hexbug Robot Crab
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| EELS Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor For Enceladus |
| Helpful Robots In Science Fiction |
| SayCan with PaLM - Google's Robot Helper |
| Robot Gas Station Attendant Fills Tank - Which I Saw In 1962 |
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'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
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'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
