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"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Reporting Machine | ||
| A robotic roving reporter. |
| The buzzing, super-alert obnoxiously persistent reporting machine said, "Is it true, Dr. Egon Superb, that you're going to try to enter your office today?"
There should have been some way to keep reporting machines out of one's house, Dr. Superb reflected. However, there was not... |
| Technovelgy from The Simulacra,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace in 1964 Additional resources -
|
Here's another descriptive passage:
It rolled toward him, blocking his way. "How do you feel, sir?"
Reporting machines could also talk directly to their audience:
"But for the present, we can only..." The newscaster rattled excitedly on, as all over the USEA the mechanical reporting machines coasted about in the areas of conflict, gathering data for him.
Dick provides this passage to let the reader know what he thinks about mechanical news media:
The idea of a reporting machine is a continuing theme for PKD; see also the autonomic interviewer from The Zap Gun (1965).
Dick was fascinated by the idea of a completely automated news production service; see homeopapes (short for homeostatic newspaper). In If There Was No Benny Cemoli, Dick refers to "news receptors" used by the fully automated news services for gathering news.
For a real-life implementation of this idea see this article on the roving robotic reporter.
After breakfast when he walked outside to his wheel he found a second reporting machine lying in wait for him...
"It is interesting," one of the reporting machines was murmuring, for the benefit of its TV audience...
The reporting machines extended their hose-like receptors, sucking in data rapidly.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Simulacra
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Simulacra
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Reporting Machine-related
news articles:
- Paparazzi Bots Get The Picture
| '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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'Alex did not find it surprising that people... were electronically minting their own cash.'
'I had determined that my first attempt should be a visit to Mars.'
To follow the user like a pet while carrying their cargo!
'Deveet unhooked his catch and laid it on the bank beside him. It was a metal fish.'
'...waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'Seen close it was not completely flexible, but made instead of pivoted and smoothly finished segments.'
