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Science Fiction
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"Science fiction represents the modern heresy and the cutting edge of speculative imagination as it grapples with Mysterious Time---linear or non-linear time."
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![]() The Spider is a robot designed for speed in bridge-building; it extrudes the cables and works faster than any other component. They were well adapted for a free space environment.
A bit more detail:
Rob had seen that lightning flash of understanding illumine her face, and been shocked by it. He drew in a deep
breath, rubbed at his dark beard and looked with new respect at those alert, pale-blue eyes.
“I’ll bet people do that all the time with you,” he said wryly. “You look about eighteen, and you stare at them with
those big eyes and ask innocent questions. They want to show off a bit, the way I did a moment ago, and before they
know what’s happening they’ve spilled something important. Well, the damage is done. I won’t deny it, even though
it has been a well-kept secret. The Spider has a key bio component where logically there would be a computer. I
suspect that Regulo’s people have been going mad trying to come up with a microprocessor with a high enough level
of parallel processing—that was my bottleneck for about six months."
Compare to Arthur C. Clarke's spider used to test the cables of a space elevator in The Fountains of Paradise. Spinnerettes were used to handle and dispense continuous pseudo one-dimensional diamond crystal in building the cables.
Take a look at this very good article by Sheffield Space
Transportation
Without
Rockets:
BEANSTALKS , TETHERS , LAUNCH LOOPS , AND INDIAN ROPE TRICKS in Far Frontiers (1986). Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
resources: Spider-related
news articles:
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
Space Exporers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
Automatic Bot Traffic Is 38 Percent Of HTTP Requests
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
Shanghai Guidelines For Humanoid Robots
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
Virtual Rat Predicts Actual Rat Neural Activity
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
Rizon 4 Ironing Robot
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
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