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

"I was driving a dynamite truck when I was 14 years old in North Carolina."
- Harlan Ellison

Psychophonic Nurse  
  A child-care robot - a nanny bot.  

"I had her made by the Eastinghouse Electric Company. You see, she's just a machine nurse, but as she doesn't eat anything, is on duty twenty-four hours a day, and draws no salary, she's cheap at the price I paid."

"...let me show you how she works. She's made of a combination of springs, levers, acoustic intruments, and by means of tubes such as are used in the radio, she's very sensitive to sounds. She's connected to the house current by a long, flexible cord, which supplies her with the necessary energy. To simplify matters, I had the orders put into numbers instead of sentences. One means that the baby is to be fed; seven that she's to be changed..."


(The Psychophonic Nurse)

"...When I ordered this machine ... I bought a phonograph with clock attachment. It will run for twenty-four hours without attention. Then I had a baby doctor work out a twenty-four hour programme of infant activity for different ages. Our baby is about two months old. You put this phonograph with the two-month record on it in the nursery... At definite periods of the twenty-four hours the phonograph will call out a number and the nurse will do what is necessary...

Technovelgy from The Psychophonic Nurse, by David H. Keller.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1928
Additional resources -

Diaper changes happen irregularly, but that's not a problem; see the entry for electric diaper.

Take a look at this 1928 illustration of the Psychophonic Nurse by Frank R. Paul.


(Psychophonic Nurse illustration by Frank R Paul)

Compare to the manufactured wife from A Wife Manufactured to Order (1895) by Alice W. Fuller, the robotess from R.U.R. (1920) by Karel Capek, the teleoperated robot surrogate from The Robot and the Lady (1938) by Manly Wade Wellman, the mechanical bride from The Mechanical Bride (1954) by Fritz Leiber, the maid-robot from The Midas Plague (1954) by Frederik Pohl and the Nanny from Nanny (1955) by Philip K. Dick.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Psychophonic Nurse
  More Ideas and Technology by David H. Keller
  Tech news articles related to The Psychophonic Nurse
  Tech news articles related to works by David H. Keller

Psychophonic Nurse-related news articles:
  - Robot Nurses Seem Unavoidable
  - PowerBot Robot Nurse From Saskatoon
  - Robot Nanny Makes Poor Role Model For Children
  - Robot Baby Crib By Suima
  - robuLAB10 Healthcare Roomba
  - Why Not Nurse Grandma With A Robot?

Articles related to Robotics
Robot Snakes No Longer Stopped By Stairs
Challenges Of Two-Armed Robots
AlphaGarden Robot Cares For Gardens Better Than Humans
TeslaBot Uber Driver (2024) And The Automatic Motorist (1911)

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>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

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

Science Fiction in the News

Cheap Drunk Driver Detection From UofM
"Look, I can drive... Start, darn it!"

Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail?
'If she starts to roll sideways — blooey! The underjets only hold you up when they’re pointing down, you know.'

Robot Snakes No Longer Stopped By Stairs
'...she dropped her hands from the wheel, took the robot snake from his box.'

Has Turkey Been Stealing Rain From Iran?
Can one country take another's rain?

We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces
'the real border was defended by ...a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats...'

SensorWake Scent-Based Alarm Clock
'The odalarm awoke Jorj X. McKie with a whiff of lemon.'

AI Worms That Spread
'...there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net now'

Challenges Of Two-Armed Robots
When the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM And One Particular SF Movie Robot
'Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed.'

Ulm Sleep Pods For The Homeless
'The lid lifted and she crawled inside...'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.