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"...science fiction is sort of like a sociological genome. It's a huge range of possible futures, most of them useless; some vital. You never really know in advance."
- Peter Watts
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| Autonomously Recharging UAV | ||
| Unmanned aerial vehicles that recharge themselves automatically. |
In the story, the tracer-birds are used to spy upon the novel's main character. It is noteworthy that Zelazny hit upon a useable way for UAVs (Unmanned aerial vehicles) to do solar charging automatically.
| The dark birdforms dotted the mountaintops like statues of prehistoric beasts, wings outspread. Had there been an eye to observe them, it might not even have noted their minute, tropism-like pursuit of the sun across the sky as they recharged their batteries for the night's flight. |
| From Changeling,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Ace in 1980 Additional resources -
|
The earliest reference that I know of for a robot that can charge itself is from the 1960 short story Callahan and the Wheelies by Stephen Barr. See the article for the self-charging robot.
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'... the immense, three-dimensional, minutely cubed model...'
'I donned it and drew its hood, and threw on its current.'
'Microscopic machinery, smaller than ants, smaller than pins, working energetically...'
