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"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
- Frederik Pohl
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| The Machine (M) | ||
| An autonomous robot able to alter its appearance and functionality at will. |
| The machine was a foot wide and two feet long: it looked like an oversized box of crackers. Silently, with great caution, it climbed the side of a concrete building; it had lowered two rubberized rollers and was now beginning the first phase of its job...
 ('The Unreconstructed M' by Philip K. Dick) Beam, holding the cigaret lighter, walked toward the M. A receptor stalk waved toward him and the machine retreated. Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed. For an interval, the device struggled with itself; then, reluctantly, the portable t-v unit again became visible. |
| Technovelgy from The Unreconstructed M,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Science Fiction Stories in 1957 Additional resources -
|
I don't have text references, but readers might compare the Shrike from Dan Simmon's 1989 novel Hyperion and the Aleph from Gregory Benford's 1983 novel Against Infinity.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Unreconstructed M
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Unreconstructed M
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
The Machine (M)-related
news articles:
- MorpHex MKII The Unreconstructed Hexapod
- Metal That Morphs
- Liquid Metal Terminator Development Hums Right Along
- Liquid Metal Shape-Changing 'Soft Robotics'
- Shapeshifter Robot Is Comprised Of Cobots
- FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM And One Particular SF Movie Robot
| Golf Ball Test Robot Wears Them Out |
| PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers |
| Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along |
| Robot Guard Dog On Duty |
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"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
