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
"Why does a creative person create? It's a type of compulsion. I like to explore new ideas."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Electronic Spy | ||
| An autonomous device that kept itself hidden while keeping track of an individual's activity. |
This is an early reference to this kind of device, and is particularly detailed.
| As if the whisper of the chair sliding on the carpeting might have been a signal, a scurrying sound came out of one darkened corner and traveled to the next and then was still...
There was something in the corner by the yellow chair and although it seemed to have no eyes, he knew it was watching him. It didn't know that he had spotted it, or it didn't seem to know, although in the next instant it more than likely would. His right arm swung up and over and followed through and the paperweight, turning end over end, crashed into the corner. There was a crunching sound and the noise of metallic parts rolling on the floor.
There were many little tubes, smashed, and an intricate mass of wiring that was bent and broken, and crystal disks that were chipped and splintered, and the metallic outer shell that had held the tubes and wiring and the disks and the many other pieces of mechanical mystery that he did not recognize... No mouse, but something else - something that scuttled in the night, knowing that he would think it was a mouse... a thing that had scared the cat which knew it was no mouse, and a thing that would not be attracted to traps. An electronic spy, he speculated, a scuttling, scurrying, listening device that watched his every moment, that stored what it heard and saw for future reference or transmitted directly the knowledge that it gained. But direct to whom? If it were a spying device, it would be made so well, so cleverly that it would be able not only to observe him but to keep out of sight itself. To have any value, it must keep its presence undetected. There would be no careless moment. |
| From Ring Around the Sun,
by Clifford Simak. Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1952 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robot tracking device from Philip K. Dick's 1960 novel Vulcan's Hammer, the scarab robot flying insect from Raymond Z. Gallun's 1936 story The Scarab and the mechanical mice from Eric Frank Russel's chilling 1941 short story The Mechanical Mice.
Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Ring Around the Sun
More Ideas
and Technology by Clifford Simak
Tech news articles related to Ring Around the Sun
Tech news articles related to works by Clifford Simak
| Smartphone Sensor System Tracks Gunfire |
| SHEPHERD-MIL, A Birdlike Soaring UAV |
| AXON Flex And Stross' Cop Specs |
| India Opts For Nationwide Iris Scanning |
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.
|
'Then their lasers vaporized the smaller satellites...'
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
