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"The first thing that's wrong with being a science-fiction writer today is that the present has caught up with the future and surpassed it."
- Peter Watts
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| Mechanical Cobra | ||
| An assassination device; senses brain waves to find its victim. |
The vengeful "deities" of Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light were able to find and punish unbelievers and dissenters with a mechanical device that used electroencephalogram readings to find its victim
| ...he's dreamed up some other little jewels, too, to serve the will of the gods ... like a mechanical cobra capable of registering encephalogram readings from a mile away, when it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd, regardless of the body he wears. There is no known antidote for its venom. |
| Technovelgy from Lord of Light,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Doubleday in 1967 Additional resources -
|
The phrase 'regardless of the body he wears' refers to the fact that reincarnation is made possible by imposing a person's known electrical brain impulses on a lifeless body grown for the purpose.
This novel is replete with references to mechanical devices that are not only functional machines, but are also either works of art or conscious imitations of nature. William Gibson also creates technovelgy of this kind; see the talking head from Neuromancer.
Philip K. Dick wrote about a similar idea several years earlier; see the entry for cephalotropic dart from his 1964 novel Lies, Inc..
Compare to the mining worm robot from Love Among the Robots (1946) by Emmett McDowell, the robot snake from Bait for the Tiger (1952) by Lee Chaytor, the robot earthworm from War with the Robots (1962) by Harry Harrison, the digger worm from With Friends Like These (1985) by Connie Willis and the robot snake spy from Mariposa (2009) by Greg Bear.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Lord of Light
More Ideas
and Technology by Roger Zelazny
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Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny
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| We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces |
| Bullet Steers Itself! The Advanced Low-Cost Munitions Ordnance ALaMO |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
