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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| Robomule | ||
| The robotic equivalent of a mule. |
| ...he might have paid more attention to his ploughing... and would have driven his furrow to the far side of the hill before the seductive music sounded along the road. But he did hear it and dropped the handles of the plough that was plugged into the robomule, turned and gaped. |
| Technovelgy from Bill the Galactic Hero,
by Harry Harrison. Published by Unknown in 1965 Additional resources -
|
You might compare the robomule to the more fully-featured robass from Anthony Boucher's 1951 story The Quest for Saint Aquin, as well as the more nimble dope mule from Bruce Sterling's 1994 novel Heavy Weather.
Compare to the automatic cultivators from Piracy Preferred (1930) by John W. Campbell, the conscious farm machines from The Hidden Colony (1935) by Otfrid von Hanstein, the robot farmer from The Turning Wheel (1954) by Philip K. Dick, the field minder from Who Can Replace A Man (1963) by Brian Aldiss, the self-guided tractor from At the Bottom of a Hole (1966) by Larry Niven, the robot crab from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson and the agricultural robot pest controller from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Bill the Galactic Hero
More Ideas
and Technology by Harry Harrison
Tech news articles related to Bill the Galactic Hero
Tech news articles related to works by Harry Harrison
Robomule-related
news articles:
- Kinze Autonomy Project's Autonomous Tractors
- Autonomous Tractor Harvest-Ready
| 3D Printing A 12-Meter Boat Hull |
| China Still Working On Rescue Robot That Eats People |
| Can One Robot Do Many Tasks? |
| Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm |
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'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.'
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
