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"None of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Bot | ||
| The first use of this contraction for "robot". |
As far as I know, this is the first use in science fiction for this very common contraction.
| You see, sir, i was killed a lot deader than you were, my whole body was destroyed, when they got my ship the only part of me that the ’bots were able to get into cold-sleep was my head, shoulders and a part of my spine... |
| Technovelgy from We All Died At Breakaway Station,
by Richard Meredith. Published by Amazing Stories in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the first use of the word robot from R.U.R. (1920) by Karel Capek.
Hard to believe, but this familiar contraction was so new that in 1977, Gregory Benford felt he needed to explain it in his story Homemaker:
The robot squats mutely.
‘Bot?’ Gerald asks. ‘
Slang for robot. You ask him.’
‘What's your name, little bot?’
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Tech news articles related to works by Richard Meredith
Bot-related
news articles:
- The Future Of Elon Musk's Neuralink
| No Tips! Robotic Food Delivery In Phoenix |
| Micro-Robots Are Smallest, Fully Functional |
| DIY Robotic Hand Made After Loss Of Fingers |
| Robot Snakes No Longer Stopped By Stairs |
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
