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"...science fiction is sort of like a sociological genome. It's a huge range of possible futures, most of them useless; some vital. You never really know in advance."
- Peter Watts
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| Diagnostat | ||
| A device able to diagnose and treat most human ailments. |
If you are going to maroon yourself on an alien planet, you might want to take one of these along for your medical needs.
| His legs were in bad shape, though none of the wounds seemed really serious... Muller got the diagnostat going.
"It's an old model," Rawlins said. "I'm not sure what to do." "Stick your legs in front of the scanner." Rawlins swiveled about. A blue light played on his wounds. In the bowels of the diagnostat things chuttered and clicked. A swab came forth on a jointed arm and ran deftly and lightly up his left leg... The machine engulfed the bloody swab and began to digest it back into its component molecules... He was getting a coagulant as well as a cleanser... The diagnostat produced an ultrasonic node and injected a golden fluid into Rawlins' rump. Pain-damper, Muller guessed. A second injection, deep amber, was probably some kind of all-purpose antibiotic to ward off infection... Now a variety of arms sprang forward from various sectors of the device, inspecting Rawlins' lesions in detail... |
| Technovelgy from The Man in the Maze,
by Robert Silverberg. Published by Avon Books in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Handily, the diagnostat also had a self-regenerating supply of medicines and supplies.
Compare to the emergency treatment tank from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz, the
Gobathian from Time is the Simplest Thing (1961) by Clifford Simak, the surgical homeostatic unit from Now Wait For Last Year (1966) by Philip K. Dick, the autodoc from The Warriors (1966) by Larry Niven, the electronic body analyzer from The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton, the crechepod from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert and the autosurgeon from Altered Carbon (2003) by Richard Morgan.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Man in the Maze
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Silverberg
Tech news articles related to The Man in the Maze
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Silverberg
Diagnostat-related
news articles:
- Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
- Forward CarePod The AI Doctor's Office
| Brain Implant Is Able To Capture Your Inner Dialogue |
| 'Pregnancy Humanoids' From China Replace Moms |
| Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea. |
| Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts |
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
