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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
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| Transmog | ||
| A small device easily installed in a robot to alter its skill set. |
Sheridan, the only human in a complement of robots, needs to assess what sort of mix of skills are needed to carry out his mission - trade with aliens!
| "We'll need some roboticists," said Sheridan. "Those boys must be smashed up fairly bad."
"Here they are. You better handle them, sir. You do it better than any one of us." Sheridan took the three transmogs and dropped them in the pocket of his jacket. "I'm sorry there are no more, sir," Hezekiah said. "That is all we have "
 (Transmog robot in 'Installment Plan' by Clifford Simak) [Sheridan] opened the almost invisible plate in the back of Ebenezer's skull and slid it quickly down, reached inside and found the spacehand transmog. With a quick twist, he jerked it out and dropped it in his pocket, then popped in the roboticist transmog, clicked it into place and drove it home. Then he shoved up the brain plate and heard it lock with a tiny click. |
| Technovelgy from Installment Plan,
by Clifford Simak. Published by Galaxy in 1959 Additional resources -
|
This is an interesting take on the idea that specialities are required; once you have humanoid robots, you can download or install the specialized knowledge and skills that they need.
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| Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots |
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
