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"I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Self-Assembling Robots | ||
| Robots with the capacity to assemble themselves from components, and then switch themselves on. |
This is a relatively early, explicit reference to this idea in sf.
| The Sheem Robots were modeled after living animals of various worlds, and the Spider is considered to have been the most perfect of them all. This is the last specimen still in existence. You asked whether I had assembled it recently... Yes, I have. It's a most simple process...
The captain swung the gun up, pointed it at Yango's chest. "What are you hiding?" he asked. "Why, the activating mechanism," Yango frowned puzzledly. "I understood you wished to see it assembled. You see, the Sheen Robots assemble themselves when the signal to to it is registered by them." |
| Technovelgy from The Witches of Karres,
by James Schmitz. Published by Not known in 1966 Additional resources -
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Witches of Karres
More Ideas
and Technology by James Schmitz
Tech news articles related to The Witches of Karres
Tech news articles related to works by James Schmitz
Self-Assembling Robots-related
news articles:
- CkBot Modular Robot Self-Assembles, Picks Gait
- Self-Assembling Robot Swarm
- Robot Lamp Assembles Itself (Via 3D Printer)
| Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot |
| Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art |
| Scary Grid Safety Robots |
| Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout! |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
