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"I love that computer science has made mathematics into something like an experimental science. I was never all that good at proving things, but I love doing computer experiments."
- Rudy Rucker
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| Homotropic News Vending Machine | ||
| An autonomous news-selling robot, that was able to specifically seek out human beings. |
I especially like the fact that this robot is "homotropic," meaning that it turns towards and seeks out human beings. By analogy with heliotropic flowers, so-called because they track the motion of the sun.
| At the door of the restaurant an automated news vending machine appeared, with a late edition of the Chronicle. It's Rushmore Effect bleated out "Special coverage of the Luckman murder case." The restaurant, with the exception of their party, was empty; the news vending machine, being homotropic, headed toward them, still bleating. "The Chronicle's own circuit investigates, and discloses startling new details not found in the Examiner or the News-Call Bulletin. It waved the newspaper in their faces.
Getting out a coin, Sharp inserted it in the slot of the machine; it at once presented him with a copy of the paper and pulled back out of the restaurant, to hunt for more people. |
| Technovelgy from The Game Players of Titan,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace Books in 1963 Additional resources -
|
This news vending machine and its habits match up well with the homeostatic newspapers or homeopapes used to create the news in other stories.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Game Players of Titan
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Game Players of Titan
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Homotropic News Vending Machine-related
news articles:
- Himawari Homotropic Sunflower Robot
- AMP Robot Chases You With Tunes
- RoboStool Homotropic Furniture
- Amazon Patents Annoying Robot That Follows You
- Spam Autonomous Cars And Philip K. Dick
| 'Facetime Facelift' Beautifies Video Chats |
| Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's |
| Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper |
| BookTrack Adds Sound To Books |
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'Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress.'
'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
