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"The world is really so surreal these days that it's necessary for us to blunt it somehow in order to stay sane. The artist functions to short-circuit the buffering mechanism, so that people can occasionally perceive the weirdness of things as they are."
- William Gibson
 |
| Serving Robot | ||
| A non-humanoid robot designed to serve. |
| As they sat down, he aimed his ultraviolet light-pencil at a serving robot. Unlike Mardukan robots, which looked like surrealist conceptions of Pre-Atomic armored knights, it was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor on its own contragravity; as it approached, its top opened like a bursting beetle shell and hinged trays of food swung out. The boy looked at it in fascination.
"Is that a Sword-World robot, sir, or did you capture it somewhere?" "It's one of our own." He was pardonably proud; it had been built on Tanith a year before. "Has an ultrasonic dishwasher underneath, and it does some cooking on top, at the back." |
| Technovelgy from Space Viking,
by H. Beam Piper. Published by Analog in 1962 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the usuform robots from Anthony Boucher's story Q.U.R..
Thanks to Winchell Chung (aka @nyrath) for the tip.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Space Viking
More Ideas
and Technology by H. Beam Piper
Tech news articles related to Space Viking
Tech news articles related to works by H. Beam Piper
Serving Robot-related
news articles:
- The First 'Drone Cafe' Started By Dutch Students
- Flying Robot Waiters From Infinium Robotics
- 7-Eleven Drone Delivers Chix Sandwich And Slurpee
- Drone Deliveries Instead Of Waiters In Restaurants?
| 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...'
