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"Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way."
- Robert Heinlein

High Tech Trash Can  
  The future of waste management.  

It's friendly, it comes when you call, it's - a trash can? If you are really determined to clean up, this is what you need.

She looked up the beach for the local trash can.

She spotted it loitering near a pair of fisherman, who stood in hip boots in the gentle surf. She called out. "Trash can!"

The can pivoted on broad rubber treads and rolled toward her voice. It snuffled across the beach, mapping its way with bursts of infrasound….

The can intoned. "Galveston appreciates good citizenship. ?Would you like to register for a valuable cash prize?"

Technovelgy from Islands in the Net, by Bruce Sterling.
Published by William Morrow in 1988
Additional resources -

Naturally, it is solar-powered.

Compare to the robot trash collectors from The Velvet Glove by Harry Harrison.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Islands in the Net
  More Ideas and Technology by Bruce Sterling
  Tech news articles related to Islands in the Net
  Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling

High Tech Trash Can-related news articles:
  - Berlin Gets Talking Trash Cans
  - BigBelly Solar-Powered Trash Can - Good/Evil?
  - Sociable Garbabge Can Robot
  - Smartphone Monitoring Trashcans Binned
  - Robotic Trash Can Wants Your Garbage

Articles related to Misc
Is There A Subterranean Ocean?
The Robotic Shopping Cart Of The Future
Arctic Resource Jackpot An Old Wish
Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive

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Science Fiction in the News

Prairie Madness - And Space Sickness
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'

Can Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Control The Weather?
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'

SETI Suggests Prospecting The Solar System Without Landing
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'

Wolfram Alpha Mathematica Predicted by Science Fiction in 1948!
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'

Cislunar Space And The Space Lanes of Golden Age Science Fiction
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'

NASA Moonbase Update
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'

Neuralink Will Allow Humans To Communicate With ... Animals?
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'

Special Lights For Driverless Cars!
'That light is actually the Anamorphic Equalizer...'

'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'

Harrison Bergeron, Illustrated And Practiced
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'

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