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"I've got this beautiful panoramic three-dimensional painting of Mars based on Martian photos. It's 30 feet wide. You can pick out every pebble on the Martian landscape. And who'd have dreamed you could do that?"
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Robotnik Automated Hotel | ||
| A fully-automated hotel; no human interaction required. |
When you're on the run, and you don't want questions, where can you go?
| As soon as we had landed and our baggage had been disgorged, a robocab took us to the Dosadan-GIup Robotnik. This was the local branch of a planet-wide chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service. Everything was mechanized and computerized. Human beings presumably visited them once in a while to check the gauges and empty the tills, but I had never seen one although I had used these hotels quite often, for many obvious reasons. I had occasionally seen other guests entering or leaving but we had avoided each other's gaze like plague carriers. The Robotniks were islands of privacy in a sea of staring eyes. They had certain drawbacks, but I had long since learned to cope with these. To the Robotnik we went...
Cash in advance was the rule at the Robotnik with any balance returned upon departure. A bellboy robot, armed with a key, rolled out and showed us the way, throwing the door wide with a blare of recorded trumpets as though it were announcing the second coming... |
| Technovelgy from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge,
by Harry Harrison. Published by Pyramid in 1970 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the automatic hotel from Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan in 2003.
Thanks to Arivne for the tip on this item.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
More Ideas
and Technology by Harry Harrison
Tech news articles related to The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
Tech news articles related to works by Harry Harrison
Robotnik Automated Hotel-related
news articles:
- Pengheng Space Capsule Hotel Staffed Entirely By Robots
- Henn-na Robot Hotel
- FlyZoo Robot Hotel By Alibaba
- Hotels Turn To Robots As Human Workers Regroup
| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
| With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need |
| Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast |
| LiquidView Ersatz Windows, ala Philip K. Dick |
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
