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

"Evolutionary success ... is going to absolutely require mobility on, at a minimum, an interplanetary scale. We either go or we die out."
- Richard Morgan

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.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

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

Articles related to Travel
Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping
Live Luggage Ready To Roll
Porter 'Robots' For Baggage, If Not People
Tweel - (Almost) A Smart Wheel

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

Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'

Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'

Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'

Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'

Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'

Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.

'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'

Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'

Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'

DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'

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.