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"[Science fiction is] nightmares and visions, always outlined by the barely possible."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Robofish (Mitsubishi Robot Turbot) | ||
| A powerful, meter-long robotic fish used to take samples from liquid lakes on other worlds (like Titan). |
Very nice novelette describes the exploration of Titan in a thoroughly modern way; astronauts do pure science while carrying on good public relations via the web.
| Consuelo carefully cleaned both of her suit’s gloves in the sea, then seized the shrink-wrap’s zip tab and yanked. The plastic parted. Awkwardly, she straddled the fish, lifted it by the two side-handles, and walked it into the dark slush.
She set the fish down. "Now I’m turning it on." The Mitsubishi turbot wriggled, as if alive. With one fluid motion, it surged forward, plunged, and was gone. Lizzie switched over to the fishcam. Black liquid flashed past the turbot’s infrared eyes. Straight away from the shore it swam, seeing nothing but flecks of paraffin, ice, and other suspended particulates as they loomed up before it and were swept away in the violence of its wake. A hundred meters out, it bounced a pulse of radar off the sea floor, then dove, seeking the depths... Snazzy Japanese cybernetics took in a minute sample of the ammonia-water, fed it through a deftly constructed internal laboratory, and excreted the waste products behind it. "We’re at twenty meters now," Consuelo said. "Time to collect a second sample." The turbot was equipped to run hundreds of on-the-spot analyses. But it had only enough space for twenty permanent samples to be carried back home. The first sample had been nibbled from the surface slush. Now it twisted, and gulped down five drams of sea fluid in all its glorious impurity. To Lizzie, this was science on the hoof. Not very dramatic, admittedly, but intensely exciting... |
| Technovelgy from Slow Life,
by Michael Swanwick. Published by Analog in 2002 Additional resources -
|
MIT made robofish - in their case, a robotuna - as early as 1994.
This story is a lot of fun - you can read it on the web. Don't miss Slow Life by Michael Swanwick.
Compare to these other underwater robots, Wabbler From The Wabbler (1942) by Murray Leinster and the robotic Eel from Re:Set by Susan Beetlestone. See also the robot fish from Atom Drive (1956) by Charles Fortenay.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 5 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Slow Life
More Ideas
and Technology by Michael Swanwick
Tech news articles related to Slow Life
Tech news articles related to works by Michael Swanwick
Robofish (Mitsubishi Robot Turbot)-related
news articles:
- Robotic Fish From China
- Robofish Autonomous Fish-bot At London Acquarium
- Robot Turtle Madeline Flipper Science
- Robotic Carps Swims Realistically In London
- RoboSalmon Are Descended From SHARCs
- Liquid Lakes On Titan Ready For Robofish
- Antarctic ENDURANCE Robot Helps NASA Explore Europa
- Robofish Swim Autonomously And Communicate Wirelessly
- Tai-robot-kun Robot Sea Bream
- Robotic Fish To Detect Pollution
- Robot AquaPenguins Soar Underwater
- MIT Robofish Now More Fishy
- Coelacanth Robot Discovered In Japan
- Little Robotic Fish Has Solid-Polymer Fuel Cell
- Could Robot Fish Lead Gulf Fish To Safety?
- AQUA2 Underwater Robot With Flippers
- Robofish Quick As Startled Pike
- GhostBot Robotic Ghost Knifefish
- Robot Fish Lead, Real Fish Follow
- Robofish - To Europa!
- SHOAL Robotic Fish Patrol Harbors
- BIOSwimmer Robotic Tuna To Patrol Homeland
- Grace, MSU's Energy-Efficient Robofish
- Robot Fish Now With Autonomous 3D Swimming
- MIT Robotic Fish Is Self-Contained, Autonomous, Fast
- NASA Submarine For Titan
- Robo-Dolphin Demonstrates Porpoising
- Exploring Oceans Across The Solar System
- Blood Battery Robotic Fish
- Robot Tuna Swims As Fast As Nature's Tuna
| Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot |
| Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art |
| Scary Grid Safety Robots |
| Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout! |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
