Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction. You look at the world around you, and take it apart into its components. Then you take some of those components, throw them away, and plug in different ones, start it up and see what happens."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Hangman | ||
| A telefactoring device that also was able to function independently. |
In this book of novellas, Roger Zelazny shows us some of the life experience of a man who doesn't exist. That is, according to the computer systems of this near future world, he did not exist.
One of the original programmers, he was able to assign himself an identity whenever he wished. Each of the stories is a case he accepted as a contractor from a private investigative agency.
In this story, the Hangman is a remarkable device that was part telefactoring device and part autonomous robot. Using an advanced brain, it learned while being used as a telefactoring device. However, this robot learned more than anyone thought possible from his trainers, returning from a space mission to kill them one by one.
| My mind was filled to the splitting point with the double vision of the sleek, gunmetal body of the advancing telefactor and the erect, crazy-crowned image of myself - left hand extended, laser pistol in my right, that arm pressed close against my side. |
| Technovelgy from My Name is Legion,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Del Rey in 1976 Additional resources -
|
The above quote describes the experience of both seeing from the robot's point of view and one's own.
This novel explores, in a very thoughtful way, a very unexpected manner in which machine intelligence might arise. It's an interesting question: how much of the complexity of our own thinking and feeling do we want to pass on to machines?
In the story, the sensitive neuristor brain of the Hangman teleoperated robot is subjected to the impressions, thoughts and feelings of the operators when a night watchman is inadvertently killed by the robot during a test run out of the lab, and into a bank.
"...I started to let myself out. The light hit me as I emerged. It was a hand flash. The guard had been standing out of sight. He'd a gun in his other hand. I panicked. I hit him. Reflex. If I am going to hit someone I hit him as hard as I can. Only I hit him with the strength of the Hangman. He must have died instantly."
(From 'Home is the Hangman' by Roger Zelazny)
Compare to the control helmet from Dawn of the Demigods, by Raymond Z. Gallun, published by Planet Stories in 1954. See also the entry for Robot AI Driven Mad from Liar (1941) by Isaac Asimov.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from My Name is Legion
More Ideas
and Technology by Roger Zelazny
Tech news articles related to My Name is Legion
Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny
Hangman-related
news articles:
- Teleo-Reactive Programs Are Reaching Their Goals
- 'Schizophrenic' Computer Aids Researchers
- Robot Swarms Improve Culture By Forgetting
- MIT Boffins Create Psychopath AI On Purpose
- Missing Jet Finally Found
| Japan's AI Buddharoid Automonks |
| Lawyer AIs Create Chaos In Our Legal System |
| Grok Scores Best In Psychological Tests |
| Google's Nano Banana Pro Presents Handwritten Math Solutions |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
