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"[Science fiction is] anything that turns you and your social context, the social you, inside out."
- Gregory Benford
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| Chevaline | ||
| An open robotic vehicle for one person, shaped like a horse. |
Seems to derive from the French word for an equestrian statue. Most of these seem to be large public monuments, as opposed to small garden statues.
| A horse, or something built around the same general plan, was coming down the street at a hard gallop. Its hooves did not make the pocking noise of iron horseshoes. Bud realized it was a chevaline - a four-legged robot thingy. |
| Technovelgy from The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
As unique as it is, there are a variety of references to this sort of conveyance. See also references to FESS in A Warlock In Spite Of Himself (Christopher Stasheff) and to Black in The Changing Land (Roger Zelazny). As it happens, FESS also had retractable rubber pads to let it gallop noiselessly. Both of these are fantasy novels that make use of the special place that a robotic vehicle of "cold iron" has in worlds where organic magic works.
In case you feel the urge to actually see robotic carts and such wandering around the countryside, you might want to visit the Robot Vehicle Range in Albuquerque, NM..
Compare to the steam horse from Le Monde Tel Qu'il Sera (The World As It Shall Be) (1846) by Emile Souvestre,
the steam cart horse from Frank Reade and his Steam Horse (1883) by Harry Enton,
the robass from The Quest for Saint Aquin (1951) by Anthony Boucher and
the robotic horse - Faithful Cybernetic Companion from The Warlock in Spite of Himself (1969) by Christopher Stasheff.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Diamond Age
More Ideas
and Technology by Neal Stephenson
Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson
Chevaline-related
news articles:
- R7 Ridable Robot
| Boring Company Drills Asimov's Single Vehicle Tunnels |
| Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said |
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
