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"Beyond a thousand years from now humans are not quite recognizably human, and I have trouble finding characters."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Automatic Massager | ||
| An autonomous massage machine with robotic arms and hands. |
After being asleep for decades while traveling between the stars, some manipulations of the body are helpful.
| Slowly, I pushed my hand toward the edge of the bed. Click! My fingers pressed the button that was there. There was a faint hum. The automatic massager began to fumble gently over my naked form.
 (Massage robot from Far Centaurus) First, it rubbed my arms; then it moved to my legs and so on over my body. As it progressed, I could feel the fine slick of oil that oozed from it working into my dry skin. A dozen times I could have screamed from the pain of life returning. But in an hour I was able to sit up and turn on the lights. |
| Technovelgy from Far Centaurus,
by A.E. van Vogt. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1944 Additional resources -
|
In another part of the story, they are described as having "gentle, padded hands."
The gentle, padded hands had been working on me for about fifteen minutes when my door opened...
In his earlier novel (1941) Methuselah's Children, Robert Heinlein wrote about care needed by somnolents in cold sleep.
Cautiously, I turned on the massager.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Far Centaurus
More Ideas
and Technology by A.E. van Vogt
Tech news articles related to Far Centaurus
Tech news articles related to works by A.E. van Vogt
Automatic Massager-related
news articles:
- Massage Robot Has Soft Hands, Er, Pads
- RehaBot Physical Therapy Robot Proposed
- Motorika Robot Therapy Helps Stroke Patients
- Prototype Robotic Masseur Has The Touch
- Robots Need A Better Sense Of Touch
- Robot Masseuse Rubs People The Right Way
| MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User |
| Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved |
| BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
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'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
