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"I'm strictly an ivory-tower person. I can explain things but I can't do things."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Robass | ||
| A robotic beast of burden. |
| “Your steed is here,” the Pope said, with something like laughter in his voice.
“Steed?” “We may be as poor and as persecuted as the primitive church, but we can occasionally gain greater advantages from our tyrants. I have secured for you a robass — gift of a leading Technarch who, like Nicodemus, does good by stealth — a secret convert, and converted indeed by that very Aquin whom you seek.” It looked harmlessly like a woodpile sheltered against possible rain. Thomas pulled off the skins and contemplated the sleek functional lines of the robass. Smiling, he stowed his minimal gear into its panniers and climbed into the foam saddle. The starlight was bright enough so he could check the necessary coordinates on his map and feed the data into the electronic controls... Thomas had never ridden a robass before, but he was inclined, within their patent limitations, to trust the works of the Technarchy. After several miles had proved that the coordinates were duly registered, he put up the foam backrest... and went to sleep. |
| Technovelgy from The Quest for Saint Aquin,
by Anthony Boucher. Published by Holt in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Here are some additional details:
Thomas stared at the black mound of brain. “Are you talking to me?” he asked the robass.
“Ha ha,” the voice said in lieu of laughter. “Surprised, are you not.”
“Somewhat,” Thomas confessed. “I thought the only robots who could talk were in library information service and such.”
“I am a new model. Designed-to-provide-conversation-to-entertain-the-way-worm-traveler,” the robass said slurring the words together as though that phrase of promotional copy was released all at once by one of his simplest binary synapses.
Well, ’ said Thomas simply. “One keeps learning new marvels.”
Boucher points out that riding a legged transport is not always comfortable, as the robass itself points out:
Even earlier, Emile Souvestre described a steam horse in Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera (The World As It Shall Be), published in 1846.
Considering it as transport with legs, compare to the centipede-machine from Monsters of Mars (1931) by Edmond Hamilton, the ships with legs from Buck Rogers: 2430 AD (1929) by Nowlan and Calkin, the metal monster from The Doom from Planet 4 (1931) by Jack Williamson, the walker wagon from Farmer in the Sky (1950) by Robert Heinlein, the walking mill from Bread Overhead! (1958) by Fritz Leiber, the centipede from Killing Titan (2015) by Greg Bear and the walking fort from The Killing Machine (1964) by Jack Vance.
Compare to the steam horse from Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera (The World As It Shall Be) (1846) by Emile Souvestre,
the steam cart horse from Frank Reade and his Steam Horse (1883) by Harry Enton,
the robotic horse - Faithful Cybernetic Companion from The Warlock in Spite of Himself (1969) by Christopher Stasheff and
the chevaline from The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson.
Thanks to Mark for contributing this item.
He... took his first opportunity to inspect the robass in full light. He admired the fast-plodding, articulated legs, so necessary since roads had degenerated... the side wheels that could be lowered into action if surface conditions permitted; and above all the smooth black mound that housed the electronic brain - the brain that stored commands and data concerning ultimate objectives and made its own decisions on how to fulfill those commands in view of those data...
"...Comfortable though I am you are already tired of traveling very tired you have many small muscular aches from sustaining an unaccustomed position and with the best intentions I am bound to jolt a little a jolting which will get worse as we ascend the mountain and I am forced to adjust my legs disproportionately to each other but proportionately to the slope. You will find the remainder of this trip twice as uncomfortable as what has gone before."
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Quest for Saint Aquin
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and Technology by Anthony Boucher
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