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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Dressing Machine | ||
| A robotic device to serve as a mechanical dresser. |
| She stepped on the rug, dug in her toes and slid to the dressing machine. This sat like a great metal spider behind a flowered screen in the corner of the room. All the craft of a hundred designers had yet to make a dressing machine attractive, and Maryn approached it with the remains of childhood dread. Once she had started it, the long shiny metal arms flashed over her and Maryn lost her fear in boredom. She was always at first a little afraid the machine would spin a cocoon around her and hang her up for a trophy, but as usual it dutifully spun a dress about her. This time Maryn was surprised to find the dress a trifle tighter than usual.
 ((Dressing machine from 'Roll Out the Roll!' by Christopher Anvil) "Maryn," said her mother's voice. "Yes, Mother?" "You're in the dressing machine, aren't you?" "Yes, Mother." Maryn raised her legs alternately for the shoes and stockings. "Hurry," said her mother. "And don't reset the machine. I have it set properly now." |
| Technovelgy from Roll Out the Rolov!,
by Christopher Anvil. Published by Imagination in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the electrical valet from The Lord of Tranerica (1939) by Stanton A. Coblentz and the mechavalet from The Angry House (1955) by Richard R. Smith.
See also the automatic valet from Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999 (1899) by Arthur Bird, the butler-valet robot from The Jester (1951) by William Tenn, the robant from The Impossible Planet (1953) by Philip K. Dick, the consumption robots from The Midas Plague (1954) by Frederik Pohl, the robutler from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970) by Harry Harrison and the autobutle from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert.
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'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
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'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
