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"...in fifty years, do you believe that people will be recognizably human?"
- Greg Bear
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| Spider-Vehicle | ||
| A multi-legged vehicle shaped like a spider, that is piloted by a person. |
I can't think of an earlier description of a vehicle that is laboriously piloted by a person. The author spends a lot of time letting you know how much work it is on uneven ground.
| The sounds from the other side of the mound went on uninterrupted — a clangor of metal, the prolonged shrilling of a cutting-torch, where evidently they were at work breaking up the smashed spider-vehicle...
THE spider-vehicle lurched and swayed, even its marvelous system of shock-absorbers protesting as it climbed steeply, straddling upward from rock to rock.
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| Technovelgy from World of the Drone,
by Robert Abernathy. Published by Imagination in 1955 Additional resources -
|
The spider vehicle was able to operate somewhat on its own:
...The spider careened onward, no hand at its controls. It hit the line of crawling little machines coming from underground; it knocked one spinning end over end, and stepped squarely on another, stamping it flat. It recovered its balance amazingly, and loped on, even though one leg was buckling beneath it —
Compare to the metallic spider from War of the Worlds (1898) by HG Wells and the spider robot from The Mystery of Element 117 (1949) by Milton K. Smith, which appear to be autonomous.
See also the ships with legs from Buck Rogers, 2430 AD (1929) by Philip Nowlan, the the robass from The Quest for Saint Aquin (1951) by Anthony Boucher and the the centipede-machine from Monsters of Mars (1931) by Edmond Hamilton, the centipede from Killing Titan (2015) by Greg Bear and the hammock crutches from Liberation of Earth (1952) by William Tenn.
Dwprn wrenched open the cabin door with one hand. His other arm circled Qanya's waist, dragged her away from the controls. She cried in uncomprehending shock as he swung her before him into the open doorway. They swayed there, high above the speeding ground, wind whipping at them as the spider pounded blindly on...
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| Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late |
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'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
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'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
