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"A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Eyes | ||
| Flying remote-operated surveillance drones. |
Eyes were used to monitor the movements of dangerous animals, prevent or respond to crime and assist in providing disaster aid.
| ...When six or seven of my hundred-thirty eyes flickered, then saw again, and the music was suddenly washed away by a wave of static, it was then that I began to feel uneasy. I called Weather Central for a report, and the recorded girlvoice told me that seasonal rains were expected in the afternoon or early evening. I hung up and switched an eye from ventral to dorsal-vision... I sent my eyes on their rounds and tended my gallery of one hundred-thirty changing pictures, on the big wall of the Trouble Center, there atop the Watch Tower of Town Hall... My eyes, coasting weightless along magnetic lines, began to blink. I knew then that we were in for something. I sent an eye scurrying off toward Saint Stephen's at full speed, which meant a wait of about twenty minutes until it topped the range. Another, I sent straight up, skywards, which meant perhaps ten minutes for a long shot of the same scene. Then I put the auto-scan in full charge of operations and went downstairs for a cup of coffee. |
| From This Moment of the Storm,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Not Known in 1966 Additional resources -
|
The eyes also had guns mounted on them that could be fired remotely.
Here's another explanatory excerpt:
Thanks to Winchell Chung for contributing the tip on this item.
And he's a Hell Cop. Probably the worst possible job for him, having to keep up his attention in one place for so long. They say the job title comes from the name of an antique flying vehicle--a hellcopper, I think. We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up, just like those old machines could. We patrol the city and the adjacent countryside. Law enforcement isn't much of a problem on Cyg. We never peek in windows or send an eye into a building without an invitation. Our testimony is admissible in court--or, if we're fast enough to press a couple buttons, the tape that we make does an even better job--and we can dispatch live or robot cops in a hurry, depending on which will do a better job.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from This Moment of the Storm
More Ideas
and Technology by Roger Zelazny
Tech news articles related to This Moment of the Storm
Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny
Eyes-related
news articles:
- Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System
- Seatlle Police Drones Overhead Now
- Taser Drones Now Legal In North Dakota
- Nuclear Drones Could Fly For Years
| Small Town Wants 60 License Plate Readers |
| Pixy Flying Selfie Drone From Snap |
| Answer To Teacher Spying And Student Surveillance? ParanoidLinux! |
| Facebook Unexpectedly Turns Away From Sfnal Face Recognition |
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'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'THE SPACE VESSEL was traveling swiftly… For over five thousand years they had Voyaged on and on.’
'They circled the vast audiences, dancing, twittering, chirping...'
'The sun-quilt was a patchwork of colors and materials on the inward side, but silvered on the outward side...'
'Jim, I saw them reduce four of my doctors and nurses into those little cubes!'
'Fats Jordan was hanging in the center of the Big Glass Balloon, hugging his guitar to his massive black belly above his purple shorts..'
'When confronted by hills, or rough terrain, it did not stop, but simply slowed until the task demanded equaled its steady power output.'
'... the brain is no longer subjected to the accustomed pull, and it expands slightly in all directions.'
