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"Another reason why privacy could be just a passing fad, terrorism is going to get too good. [1997]"
- Larry Niven
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| Robotic Undersea Turtle | ||
| A sea-going robot that resembles a turtle. |
| It stirred among shadows, behind a squat cylinder topped with the usual black-and-mirror plates. Perhaps three feet long, six or eight inches high... It came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal. A latticework swiveled at the front end like a miniature radioradar beamcaster. Something glinted beadily beneath, twin lenses? Two thin tentacles held a metal silver off one of the great stationary structures. They fed it into an orifice, and sparks shot back upward-
 (Robot turtle from 'Epilogue' (1962) by Poul Anderson) "Holy Moses," Kuroki whispered. The thing stopped in its tracks. The front-end lattice swung toward the humans. Then the thing was off, unbelievably fast. In half a second there was nothing to see. Nobody moved for almost a minute. Finally Frederika clutched Darkington's arm with a little cry. The rigidness left him and he babbled of experimental robot turtles in the early days of cybernetic researchvery simple gadgets. A motor drove a wheeled platform, steered by a photoelectric unit that approached light sources by which the batteries might be recharged and, when this was done, became negatively phototropic and sought darkness. An elementary feedback circuit. But the turtles had shown astonishing tenacity, had gone over obstacles or even around... "That beast there was a good deal more complicated..." |
| Technovelgy from Epilogue,
by Poul Anderson. Published by Analog in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the Robofish (Mitsubishi Robot Turbot) from Slow Life (2002) by Michael Swanwick.
Thanks to Bruce P for pulling this item out of his memory.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Epilogue
More Ideas
and Technology by Poul Anderson
Tech news articles related to Epilogue
Tech news articles related to works by Poul Anderson
Robotic Undersea Turtle-related
news articles:
- Robot Turtle Madeline Flipper Science
- Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
| Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones |
| It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned! |
| Tactile Skin Supplier Map |
| Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo |
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
