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"We're about 20 minutes away from the point where Clarke's law kicks in and technology becomes indistinguishable from magic."
- Peter Watts
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| Window-Cleaner Robots | ||
| Robots that perform the task of cleaning and polishing transparent surfaces. |
The cylindrical ship Rama had enormous lighting strips; how to keep them clean?
| There were the "window cleaners," with large padded feet, who were apparently polishing their way the whole length of Rama's six artificial suns. Their enormous shadows, cast right across the diameter of the world, sometimes caused temporary eclipses on the far side. |
| Technovelgy from Rendezvous With Rama,
by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1972 Additional resources -
|
The Window Cleaner robots are really "biots", biological robots that have stored energy cells like electric eels.
Compare to Window Willie from Door Into Summer (1956) by Robert Heinlein.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Rendezvous With Rama
More Ideas
and Technology by Arthur C. Clarke
Tech news articles related to Rendezvous With Rama
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur C. Clarke
Window-Cleaner Robots-related
news articles:
- Winbot Scrubs Your Windows
- Ecovacs Winbot 7 Window-Cleaning Robot
- SINTEF Robot Cleans Solar Panels
- BladeBUG Robots Clean Massive Wind Turbine Blades
- Solar Powered Robot Cleans Up Solar Panels For Free
- Solar Panel Cleaning Robots
| SpaceHopper Microgravity Robot Lands On Its Feet |
| No Tips! Robotic Food Delivery In Phoenix |
| Micro-Robots Are Smallest, Fully Functional |
| DIY Robotic Hand Made After Loss Of Fingers |
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'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.
'...a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football.'
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
