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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Autonomic Interviewer | ||
| A robotic reporter. |
What is the best way to feed the ravenous maw of pop culture? Robotic reporters, that's how.
| "Mr. Lars, sir."
"I'm afraid I only have a moment to talk to your viewers. Sorry." He started on, but the autonomic TV interviewer, camera in its hand, blocked his path. The metal smile of the creature glittered confidently... "Look," he said, this time gently, as if the autonomic interviewer were really alive and not merely an arbitrarily endowed sentient concoction of the ingenuity of Wes-block technology of A.D. 2004 |
| From The Zap Gun,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1965 Additional resources -
|
The use of the word "autonomic" is very clever. Although dictionaries list it as synonymous with "autonomous", most of us associate the word with the "autonomic nervous system", thus blurring the line between mechanical constructs and organic materials. It's as if stepping up to someone and posing irritating questions becomes an involuntary action, unmediated by conscious thought - an autonomic reflex.
The humble autonomic interviewer is exactly the sort of "receptor" that gathered news for the vast cybernetic homeostatic newspapers (also called homeopapes) of PKD's bleak future.
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| Smartphone Microdrone Concept - Viva Vivo! |
| Feisty Little Robot Dog Cheaper Than Boston Dynamics |
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'Waldo flexed and extended his fingers gently; the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'They were stylish, with yellow-tinted lenses and hip frames, but the posts were unusually thick.'
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed...'
'He immediately turned the small shining disc of the Language Rectifier..'
'The delicious, indescribable pleasure of being a little planet swinging through space...'
'The horse reared up, pawing the air, then sprang into a gallop.'
'...most jobs that require a human form are better done by those organic alternatives.'
'So what we're looking for now is... an anti-agathic, an anti-death drug.'
