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"The first thing that's wrong with being a science-fiction writer today is that the present has caught up with the future and surpassed it."
- Peter Watts
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| Dog Pod Grid | ||
| A swarm of quasi-independent aerostatic devices. |
The reason for including this entry, as well as one for aerostat, is that these machines are capable of communicating with each other. This communication allows them to coordinate their movements.
| Atlantis/Shanghai occupied the loftiest ninety percent of New Chusan's land area - an inner plateau about a mile above sea level, where the air was cooler and cleaner. Parts of it were marked off with a lovely wrought-iron fence, but the real border was defended by something called the dog pod grid - a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats... These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern about ten centimeters apart near the ground (close enough to stop a dog but not a cat, hence "dog pods") and spaced wider as they got higher. |
| Technovelgy from The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
Together, they form a protective swarm.
In nature, bees swarm for a purpose; an ageing queen, overcrowding, poor ventilation in the hive. In flight, bee swarms approximate the kind of distance between individuals shown in a dog pod grid, with several thousand individuals spread through a volume the size of a minivan, flying together. However, when a bee swarm settles, the individuals congregate in a dense volume roughly the size of a football.
"Guard" bees don't fly around the hive to protect it; they stand guard in an aggressive stance at the entrance to the hive, checking individuals upon entry.
Compare to the pacification drones from The Breach (2020) by Matt Hill, the scuttle-bot from Hella (2020) by David Gerrold and the robot snake spy from Mariposa (2009) by Greg Bear.
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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
Dog Pod Grid-related
news articles:
- COTS Scout: Team Building Robot
- Nano Quadrotors Form Stephenson's Dog Pod Grid
- Autonomous UAV Surveillance Swarm
- Flyfire Micro-Helicopter Display
- Improve MAVs By Studying Bees In Flight
- Largest Micro-Drone Swarm Release Successful
- Drone Catches Drone! In Japan
- Biggest Drone Swarm Sets World Record
- Drone 100, Coordinated Drone Performance Team
- China's Drone Fleet Flies In Formation
- Crazyflie Drone Swarm Technology
- Slaughterbot AI KIller Quadcopter Drones
- Poland Starts With 1000 Warmate 'Suicide Drones'
- We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces
- Can A Swarm Of Deadly Drones Take Out An Aircraft Carrier?
- Drones In Vast Airborne Grids
- Tornyol Microdrone Kills Mosquitoes
| Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus |
| Huawei Pura X Folding Phattie Phone |
| Positioned Cybertrucks With Free Starlinks WiFi In LA |
| Will Whales Be Our First Contact? |
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'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
