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"I went [to the top of] Vehicle Assembly Building and looked down, and tears burst from my eyes. The size of this cathedral where the Rockets take off to go to the moon is so amazing."
- Ray Bradbury
 |
| Self-Guided Tractors | ||
| A farm vehicle that drives itself. |
| Five miles above the sunlight tube, the sky was a patchwork of small squares, split by a central wedding ring of lake and by tributary rivers, a sky alive with the tiny red glints of self-guided tractors. |
| From At the Bottom of a Hole,
by Larry Niven. Published by Galaxy Magazine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robomule (1965) from Bill the Galactic Hero, by Harry Harrison.
SF fans at the movies are ready with their favorite example of autonomous combines - take a look at these beauties from the recent 2015 hit movie Interstellar.
(Autonomous combines in Interstellar)
Also compare to the field-minder From Who can Replace a Man (1963) by Brian Aldiss.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from At the Bottom of a Hole
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to At the Bottom of a Hole
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Self-Guided Tractors-related
news articles:
- Rowbot Small Autonomous Farm Robot
- Once A Jolly Swagbot Camped By A Billabong
- The Hands-Free Hectare
- CNH Industrial Autonomous Tractor Concept Video
- Multi-Robot Farming On Highly Sloped Land
| Robots Help People Get Dressed, As Predicted In 1931 |
| Robot Snake Flies, Fights Fires |
| IPAL Chinese Robot Babysitter |
| DIY Autonomous Robot Detects Trash |
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Negligible increase in weight increased material strength by hundreds of times.
'All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.'
The number of different ways to span a thread between a larger number of hooks is astronomical.
'This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck, of course.'
What's it like for autonomous trams when they're turned off at night?
'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
