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"Science fiction has gotten more accurate as we've gotten closer to the present, because science fiction stories have not only attracted, but also generated current scientists."
- Larry Niven
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| Mechavalet | ||
| An entirely automated dressing assistant. |
| A closet door slid into a wall. A slender machine, five feet tall and with sixteen long metal tentacles rolled across the room on soft rubber wheels.
It looked like a mechanical monster from another world, but it was merely a very efficient machine to undress the house's masters—a mechavalet. The mechavalet paused behind the woman's back. Sixteen rubber-tipped metal tentacles reached out. The machine normally undressed a person with smoothness and gentleness. This time the house made it operate as roughly as possible.
 (Mechavalet from 'The Angry House' by Richard R. Smith) The sixteen tentacles moved swiftly and the machine tore the woman's dress to shreds before she could even scream. |
| Technovelgy from The Angry House,
by Richard R. Smith. Published by Startling Stories in 1955 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the electrical valet from The Lord of Tranerica (1939) by Stanton A. Coblentz and the dressing machine from Roll Out the Rollov! by Christopher Anvil.
See also the automatic valet from Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999 (1899) by Arthur Bird, the butler-valet robot from The Jester (1951) by William Tenn, the robant from The Impossible Planet (1953) by Philip K. Dick, the consumption robots from The Midas Plague (1954) by Frederik Pohl, the robutler from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970) by Harry Harrison and the autobutle from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert.
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Tech news articles related to The Angry House
Tech news articles related to works by Richard R. Smith
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| Mornine Sales Robot |
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'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
'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?'
