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
"By the time I can take people out to where Hubble is looking, they won't be human anymore, by a long way."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Talking Robot | ||
| An impractical robot, for display only. |
| The Talking Robot was a tour de force, a thoroughly impractical device, possessing publicity value only. Once an hour, an escorted group stood before it and asked questions of the robot engineer in charge in careful whispers. Those the engineer decided were suitable for the robot's circuits were transmitted to the Talking Robot. It was rather dull. It may be nice to know that the square of fourteen is one hundred ninety-six, that the temperature at the moment is 72 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air-pressure 30.02 inches of mercury, that the atomic weight of sodium is 23, but one doesn't really need a robot for that. One especially does not need an unwieldy, totally immobile mass of wires and coils spreading over twenty-five square yards. |
| From Robbie,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Fictioneers, Inc. in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Thanks to Winchell Chung (aka @nyrath) of Project Rho for contributing this item.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Robbie
More Ideas
and Technology by Isaac Asimov
Tech news articles related to Robbie
Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov
| Out-Of-Work Blue Collar Robots Need Your Help |
| Massage Robot Has Soft Hands, Er, Pads |
| M-Blocks 2.0 Self-Assembling Robots |
| Digit V2 Bipedal Robot From Agility Robotics |
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> |
|
|
|
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 Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Convincing video shows progress (and limitations).
'The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.'
'Against Death doth no simple grow.'
'His legs relaxed with a rattle as he cut off all power below his waist... and ran his eye down the Help Wanted - Robot column...'
'It can be mass-produced only in the orbiting factories.'
'He realized that it was not quite a clear lens.'
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed down the long aisles...'
'Here is the chronoscope... Scansion depends upon a special curved field...'
'It's illegal to hold back information during a psyche test.'
