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"The SF approach: an awareness that things could have been different, that this is one of many possible worlds, that if you came to this world from some other planet, this would be a science fiction world."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Robotic Butterfly | ||
| A tiny, electromechanical flying robot. |
I can't think of another reference to a "robot butterfly".
| The robot monarch butterfly drops down and hovers above Susan Calvin. She stands in a long corridor of silvery metal. We cannot see either end of the tunnel. It stretches away in both directions ... a road from nowhere to nowhere. Susan wears a long caftan, like a nightshirt. We will have the feeling she is unable to sleep and is walking to settle her thoughts. The robot butterfly hovers and she looks up at it. Then from the butterfly we HEAR the hollow, faintly tinny VOICES of Bratenahl and Bernice recorded from the preceding scene:
BERNICE’S VOICE FROM BUTTERFLY (FILTER) |
| Technovelgy from I, Robot: The Movie,
by Harlan Ellison. Published by Asimov's Science Fiction in 1987 Additional resources -
|
A bit more:
Compare to the artificial butterfly from Changeling (1980) by Roger Zelazny.
The light fills the FRAME and we HEAR two things: the ECHO VOICE of CALVIN saying "Goodbye” over and over, growing ever fainter until it is overcome by the SOUND of the WHIRRING of the robot butterfly as it swoops down into the FRAME and the CAMERA FOLLOWS IT UP into the blazing light of the silver metal corridor...
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from I, Robot: The Movie
More Ideas
and Technology by Harlan Ellison
Tech news articles related to I, Robot: The Movie
Tech news articles related to works by Harlan Ellison
Robotic Butterfly-related
news articles:
- ChouChou Butterfly Robot
| 'Birds Aren't Real' An NPR Gen-Z Conspiracy |
| Mika The Robot-Boss |
| Sensitive, Soft Robot Skin |
| Finger Sensors For Robot Hands |
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'BY PUSHING AGAINST THE LITTLE MARTIAN MOON WITH OUR ROCKET SHIP, WE HAD LESSENED THE CENTRIFUGAL SPEED THAT HELD IT BALANCED IN THE SKY.'
'... he had tightened the chest to gain maximum pumping action from the motion of breathing.'
'...a prayer wheel swung into view and began spinning at a furious pace.'
'And are all the people willing to be governed by a machine?'
