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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Robot Snake Spy | ||
| A small robot in the shape of a snake, used for field work by spies. |
How to retrieve a small amount of material from a person held captive in a small cottage?
| The coil on the table appeared to be a snake - tan and brown with black specks and a spade-shaped head. It did not look alive and it did not look dead.
...He reached down and partially uncoiled the snake, then squeezed its middle. A small hatch popped open, giving a glimpse of gleaming steel ribs and wires. He placed the tube inside the snake, then closed the hatch. "The snake has hi-res terrain mapping tied in with augmented GPS, and in this model, face and voice recognition... Within sight of a targeted individual - I mean, the intended individual - it will make an audible announcement and open its hatch." |
| Technovelgy from Mariposa,
by Greg Bear. Published by Vanguard Press in 2009 Additional resources -
|
Interesting science-fictional predecessors to this idea include the mining worm robot from Love Among the Robots (1946) by Emmett McDowell, the robot snake from Bait for the Tiger (1952) by Lee Chaytor, the robot earthworm from War with the Robots (1962) by Harry Harrison, the mechanical cobra from Lord of Light (1967) by Roger Zelazny and the digger worm from With Friends Like These (1985) by Connie Willis.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Mariposa
More Ideas
and Technology by Greg Bear
Tech news articles related to Mariposa
Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear
Robot Snake Spy-related
news articles:
- Snakebot Conquers Obstacle Course
- Terrifying Robot Snake's Flying, Coiling Attack
- Robot Snakes Now With Partitioned Gait
| China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter |
| FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers |
| Perching Ambush Drones |
| India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking |
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'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
