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"I'm strictly an ivory-tower person. I can explain things but I can't do things."
- Isaac Asimov
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Microrob |
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Small stature robots. |
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That night, in the workshop behind his store, Hoagland Rae sat with a jeweler’s loup in his right eye, examining one of the figurines which Tony Costner’s boy had won at the Falling Star Entertainment Enterprises carnival earlier in the day.
Fifteen of the figurines lay in a row against the far wall of Hoagland’s workshop.
With a tiny pair of pliers Hoagland pried open the back of the doll-like structure and saw, within, intricate wiring. “The boy was right,” he said to Bob Turk, who stood behind him smoking a synthetic tobacco cigarette in jerky agitation. “It’s not a doll; it’s fully rigged. Might be UN property they stole; might even be a microrob. You know, one of those special autonomic mechanisms the government uses for a million tasks from spying to reconstruct surgery for war vets.”

(Microrob from 'A Game of Unchance' by Philip K. Dick)
A microscopic switch, disguised as the belt buckle of the figurine... exulting, Hoagland closed the switch with his needle-nose pliers, set the figurine down on his workbench and waited.
The figurine stirred. It reached into a pouch-like construct hanging at its side, a sort of purse; from the pouch it brought a tiny tube, which it pointed at Hoagland.
“Wait,” Hoagland said feebly. Behind him Turk bleated and scuttled for cover. Something boomed in his face, a light that thrust him back; he shut his eyes and cried out in fright. We’re being attacked! |
Technovelgy from A Game of Unchance,
by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1964
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Compare to the micro-android (micro-robot) from Dawn of the Demigods by Raymond Z. Gallun, published by Planet Stories in 1954.
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