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"I love that computer science has made mathematics into something like an experimental science. I was never all that good at proving things, but I love doing computer experiments."
- Rudy Rucker

Homotropic News Vending Machine  
  An autonomous news-selling robot, that was able to specifically seek out human beings.  

I especially like the fact that this robot is "homotropic," meaning that it turns towards and seeks out human beings. By analogy with heliotropic flowers, so-called because they track the motion of the sun.

At the door of the restaurant an automated news vending machine appeared, with a late edition of the Chronicle. It's Rushmore Effect bleated out "Special coverage of the Luckman murder case." The restaurant, with the exception of their party, was empty; the news vending machine, being homotropic, headed toward them, still bleating. "The Chronicle's own circuit investigates, and discloses startling new details not found in the Examiner or the News-Call Bulletin. It waved the newspaper in their faces.

Getting out a coin, Sharp inserted it in the slot of the machine; it at once presented him with a copy of the paper and pulled back out of the restaurant, to hunt for more people.

Technovelgy from The Game Players of Titan, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Ace Books in 1963
Additional resources -

This news vending machine and its habits match up well with the homeostatic newspapers or homeopapes used to create the news in other stories.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Game Players of Titan
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Game Players of Titan
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Homotropic News Vending Machine-related news articles:
  - Himawari Homotropic Sunflower Robot
  - AMP Robot Chases You With Tunes
  - RoboStool Homotropic Furniture
  - Amazon Patents Annoying Robot That Follows You
  - Spam Autonomous Cars And Philip K. Dick

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