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"Looking back through history, I see no evidence for humanity making the best of things, and I think it's a pretty safe bet that's an on-going trend."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Remote Control Taxicab | ||
| A cab that is piloted by a remote operator. |
Very early reference to this idea, an interesting counterpoint to the idea of an autonomous cab (which Dick talks about in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch [1965]) or a regular cab that is piloted by a robot (which Dick talks about in A Present for Pat [1952]).
| Beam started slowly back toward his lab. Then, abruptly, he changed his mind and turned in the direction of the business area. When a free-wheeling cab came by, he hailed it and clambered in.
“Where to, sport?” the starter at cab relay asked. City cabs were guided by remote control from one central source. |
| Technovelgy from The Unreconstructed M,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Science Fiction Stories in 1957 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the driverless drones from the 2007 novel Halting State by Charles Stross.
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| San Francisco Autobus |
| Volvo's Autonomous Truck |
| Eviation Alice Electric Plane First Flight |
| Robotaxi By Cruise Premieres in Austin, Texas |
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'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'
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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.'
