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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross
 |
| Invisible Watchmen | ||
| Automated 'home security' sentry system that targets and eliminates intruders. |
This is a very early reference to this idea. They're diabolically ingenious!
| He reached up with the little oval instrument he held.
It was a recorder which registered the presence anywhere nearby of "invisible watchmen," those diabolically ingenious combinations of electric eyes and atomic beams, effective alarms that blasted down intruders without warning. |
| Technovelgy from Murder in the Void,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1938 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the automatic gun from The Andromeda Strain (1969) by Michael Crichton and the
robot gun from Aliens (1986) by Alan Dean Foster.
This idea is under development (using bullets instead of lasers), with some success: see the article on the DoDAMM Autonomous Robot Sentry Gun.
(Super aEgis 2 autonomous robot sentry gun )
As far as I know, automatically targeted guns didn't exist until WWII when anti-aircraft fire could be targeted using radar.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Murder in the Void
More Ideas
and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to Murder in the Void
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
| Goodness Gracious Me! Google Tries Face Recognition Security |
| Live Stream With Meta-Ban Multimodal Smart Glasses |
| Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions |
| Amazon One Is Frank Herbert's Palm Lock |
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'If the biological robots were not living creatures, they were certainly very good imitations.'
"Everybody and his dog, it seemed, wanted to live out in the country; transportation and communication were no longer isolating factors."
'... the new typewriter that could be talked to, and which transposed the spoken sound into typed words.'
'... underneath they consisted of networks of cooling tubes against the skin.'
'My cars talk to one another. I have no doubt about it...'
'... the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell.'
