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"If I had to get a new Ph.D. now, I'd get it in polymer engineering - the manipulation of matter."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Invisible Watchmen | ||
| Automated 'home security' sentry system that targets and eliminates intruders. |
This is a very early reference to this idea. They're diabolically ingenious!
| He reached up with the little oval instrument he held.
It was a recorder which registered the presence anywhere nearby of "invisible watchmen," those diabolically ingenious combinations of electric eyes and atomic beams, effective alarms that blasted down intruders without warning. |
| Technovelgy from Murder in the Void,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1938 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the automatic gun from The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton and the
robot gun from Aliens (1986) by Alan Dean Foster.
This idea is under development (using bullets instead of lasers), with some success: see the article on the DoDAMM Autonomous Robot Sentry Gun.
(Super aEgis 2 autonomous robot sentry gun )
As far as I know, automatically targeted guns didn't exist until WWII when anti-aircraft fire could be targeted using radar.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Murder in the Void
More Ideas
and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to Murder in the Void
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
| Goodness Gracious Me! Google Tries Face Recognition Security |
| Live Stream With Meta-Ban Multimodal Smart Glasses |
| Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions |
| Amazon One Is Frank Herbert's Palm Lock |
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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.'
