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"...the space defense initiative drove the USSR bankrupt, and it originated at my house in Tarzana."
- Larry Niven
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| Self-Guided Tractors | ||
| A farm vehicle that drives itself. |
| Five miles above the sunlight tube, the sky was a patchwork of small squares, split by a central wedding ring of lake and by tributary rivers, a sky alive with the tiny red glints of self-guided tractors. |
| Technovelgy from At the Bottom of a Hole,
by Larry Niven. Published by Galaxy Magazine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
SF fans at the movies are ready with their favorite example of autonomous combines - take a look at these beauties from the recent 2015 hit movie Interstellar.
(Autonomous combines in Interstellar)
Compare to the automatic cultivators from Piracy Preferred (1930) by John W. Campbell, the conscious farm machines from The Hidden Colony (1935) by Otfrid von Hanstein, the robot farmer from The Turning Wheel (1954) by Philip K. Dick, the field minder from Who Can Replace A Man (1963) by Brian Aldiss, the Robomule from Bill the Galactic Hero (1965) by Harry Harrison, the robot crab from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson and the agricultural robot pest controller from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from At the Bottom of a Hole
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to At the Bottom of a Hole
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Self-Guided Tractors-related
news articles:
- Rowbot Small Autonomous Farm Robot
- Once A Jolly Swagbot Camped By A Billabong
- The Hands-Free Hectare
- CNH Industrial Autonomous Tractor Concept Video
- Multi-Robot Farming On Highly Sloped Land
| Robots Repair And Modify Themselves |
| Robot Janitors Get To Work |
| Robots Learn To Install Charged Batteries Into Themselves |
| Robot Rabbits Entice Pythons |
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'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
This is nothing new for science fiction fans!
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
