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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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| 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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'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
