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"I can't tell whether or not there's going to be a Singularity. I don't really believe the rapture of the nerds stereotype..."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Telepresence Bulldozer | ||
| A bulldozer on the Moon that is operated remotely by a driver on Earth. |
We can see the future of telepresence in the following scenes from a documentary described in the novel:
| "Meet Rachel Lief," Lunan said. "Ms. Lief is a bulldozer driver." Lunan paused for effect. "As you see, Ms. Lief doesn't look like your typical tractor driver..."
"But then," Lunan said, "not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon." The cameras followed the trim woman into another room, where there was a replica of a large tractor. It was surrounded by TV screens. One screen showed an astronaut sitting in the driver's seat, staring impatiently into the screen. A bleak, nearly colorless pit showed over his left shoulder. "About time you got here," the astronaut said. "We were busy," Rachel sat down in the driver's seat and took hold of the controls. "I relieve you..." The bulldozer moved through the lunar strip mine... "As you can see... this is no easy job. It takes over a second for the signal to get to the Moon, and over a second for the information to get back to her. It takes a lot of computer power to work this trick, but its worth it. Meet Colonel Robert Boyd, commander of Moon Base." "Colonel Boyd, does it help to have Earth-based machine operators?" "Sure. It costs a lot to keep people on the Moon. Now it's like I have four or five times as many people up hear, and I don't have to find air for them or feed them." |
| Technovelgy from Oath of Fealty,
by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven). Published by Timescape in 1981 Additional resources -
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and Technology from Oath of Fealty
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and Technology by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven)
Tech news articles related to Oath of Fealty
Tech news articles related to works by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven)
Telepresence Bulldozer-related
news articles:
- Robotic Lunar 'MoonDigger' Bulldozers Planned By NASA
- Robotic Bulldozer Force Doubles In Israel
- Regolith Excavation Challenge Yields Prize Money
- NASA Project M Robot Avatar On Moon
- Moon Express Lunar Robot Mining: Shine On, Harvest Moon
- Lunatix Lunar Rover Will Accept YOUR Commands!
- Armano Remote Control Excavator
- Changesite Mineral To Be Mined On Moon By China
| NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts |
| Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn |
| Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail? |
| First Ever Proof Of Water On Asteroids |
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'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
'...a universal cryptogram — yet it is one which can be interpreted by any intelligent creature on any planet in the Solar System!'
