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"There's a tendency to think that maybe if we can just throw enough hardware at the AI problem, then evolution can take care of the rest. Certainly that's how God went about making us."
- Rudy Rucker
 |
| Autoporter | ||
| A device that carries your bag for you at airports. |
Another great thing - that I can't get.
| ...he nabbed an autoporter and - after consulting the illuminated fee table on its flank - credded the minimum: $35 for an hour's service... From now until his credit expired the machine would carry his bag in its soft plastic jaws and follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound, which indeed it resembled, down to the whimper it was programmed to utter at the 55-minute mark, and the howl at 58. At 60 it would drop the bag and slink away. |
| Technovelgy from The Shockwave Rider,
by John Brunner. Published by Harper and Row in 1975 Additional resources -
|
This is a much better option than those rental luggage carriers, since you don't need to push it. Besides, the canine reference brings with it a welcome sense of loyal service (what you would expect from your dog).
Compare to the televox robot porter from On Board the Martian Liner (1931) by Miles J. Breuer and to Luggage (with legs) from The Color of Magic (1983) by Terry Pratchett.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Shockwave Rider
More Ideas
and Technology by John Brunner
Tech news articles related to The Shockwave Rider
Tech news articles related to works by John Brunner
Autoporter-related
news articles:
- TMSUK Robot Carries Your Bags
- Porter 'Robots' For Baggage, If Not People
- Russian Robot Suitcase
- RoboPorter Carries Your Baggage, Guides You
- Live Luggage Ready To Roll
- Shadow Caddy Robot Is Golfer's Dream Bot
- Dog Wan Robot Available For Lease
- Robotic Wheelchair Autonomously Follows Walking Companion
- The Robotic Shopping Cart Of The Future
- Budgee Robot Carries Your Bags
- Oh, Just Let Robots Run Airports
- Robotic Suitcase Follows You
- Walmart Shopping Cart Robots Will Follow You
- You Can't Lose The Travelmate Autonomous Suitcase - It Follows You
- Piaggio Gita Personal Robot Porter
- Soon, Your Tesla Will Follow You Like A Pet
- Updated Piaggio Gita Personal Robot Porter
- WaPOCHI Micro-Mobility Robot Follows Like A Pet With Your Bags
| Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping |
| Live Luggage Ready To Roll |
| Porter 'Robots' For Baggage, If Not People |
| Tweel - (Almost) A Smart Wheel |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
