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"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Stick-Tight | ||
| A general term for surveillance devices that will follow a subject and record speech or video. |
Vance provides an interesting variety of spy devices, both mechanical and animal.
| Suthiro knit his furry brown eyebrows in puzzlement, glanced for the most fleeting instant upward.
Gersen continued, "There is a stick-tight watching us, although I have not yet located it. Its microphone probably registers our conversation... |
| From The Star King,
by Jack Vance. Published by Berkeley in 1964 Additional resources -
|
According to Vance, the stick-tight comes in at least five different variations:
Thanks to an anonymous reader for providing the source and the quote.
You might want to take a look at a tiny modern-day device that seems to be just what Vance was talking about with his servo-optical stick-tight - the uFR-II micro flying robot. It even has image recording capability!
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Star King
More Ideas
and Technology by Jack Vance
Tech news articles related to The Star King
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance
Stick-Tight-related
news articles:
- Wing-Morphing Micro Air Vehicles
- Aeryon Scout UAV Gets Upgrades
- Eye-bot Lands On Your Ceiling
- Drones Stick Tight, Remember Your Face
| IJOP Integrated Joint Operations Platform China's Minority Report? |
| Kuri Robot Roams Your Home, Taking Pictures |
| Nuclear Drones Could Fly For Years |
| China's Drone Fleet Flies In Formation |
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
There's a lesson in this for neural net AI engineers everywhere.
