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"If we're going to be consistent and advocate freedom of speech we have to advocate freedom of encrypted speech too. The genie is out of the bottle, cryptologically."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Iridium-Sponge Brain | ||
| A human-like metal brain for robots. |
Ah, to create a robot brain!
| Dr. Link, my creator, had taken
twenty years to build my complex metal
brain. I duplicated the feat in a month.
Dr. Link had had to devise every step
from zero. I had only to follow his
beaten path. As an added factor, I
work and think with a rapidity un-
known to you humans. And I work 24
hours a day.
...I switched on the electric current. Slowly I rheostated it up, to reach the point at which electrons would drum through the iridium-sponge brain, as thoughts drum in the human mind, under the forces of life. I watched, holding my breath—no, I have no breath. Sometimes I forget I am a metal man. But the idiom stands as descriptive of my feelings...
 (Robot from 'Adam Link's Vengeance' by Eando Binder) I heard the hum of the electron-discharge, coursing through the metal-brain I hoped to bring to life. And then — movement! The eyelids of the head flicked open. The brain saw. |
| Technovelgy from Adam Link's Vengeance,
by Eando Binder. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the synthetic brain from Mad Robot (1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the positronic brain from Reason (1941) by Isaac Asimov, the neuristor from My Name is Legion (1976), by Roger Zelazny and the artificial brain from Edmond Hamilton's 1926 classic The Metal Giants.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Adam Link's Vengeance
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and Technology by Eando Binder
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Tech news articles related to works by Eando Binder
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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
