Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"...the people dealing with these new technologies will still be derived from the human stock we're familiar with today."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Maintenance Drone (Holon) | ||
| A semi-autonomous flying device used to perform repairs. |
| THE TIBETAN MAINTENANCE DRONES had the sleek bodies of dragonflies. Their surfaces scattered the sunlight back in violet and emerald. Slender legs protruded from their thoraxes on trochanter and coxa sockets, ending in grasping claws. They moved with darting grace from one task to another in the temple courtyard...
The automonk that was missing an arm—one of the two that had spoken with Ha the night before—wandered the courtyard in a wobbling meditative circle. Its saffron robe was torn in several places... Evrim came up the path carrying the missing limb and laid it on one of the votive tables. “I found it in the cleft of a banyan tree.” The second dragonfly drone hummed over, darting around the limb in small circles... “They are not drones,” Altantsetseg said. “Though I suppose most people still call them that, the same way for decades people called our terminals ‘phones.’ These are sophisticated hybrid systems... The dragonfly had descended from its transport unit and landed on the damaged automonk. It was now using a scissor tool to cut away the torn saffron robes... “The holon is an innovation of their own. And yes—as Evrim said, it has helped make them very rich. The term means a self-reliant unit with enough independence built into it to handle contingencies without asking a central control authority for instructions—but it is simultaneously subject to control from its higher authority. You can’t tell where your command ends and the response algorithm begins. It’s like an extension of the nervous system, but more than that: information in the system flows bi-directionally. It’s as if your limbs talked back—as if your limbs were little minds that innovate and improvise. |
| Technovelgy from The Mountain in the Sea,
by Ray Naylor. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2022 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the repair robots from The Well-Oiled Machine (1950) by H.B. Fyfe, the hammers from Vulcan's Hammer (1960) by Philip K. Dick,automated apartment maintenance from Ubik (1969) by Philip K. Dick, the Powered Suit with Trauma Maintenance from The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman, the service drones from The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979) by James P. Hogan, the Christmas Bush Motile Robot from Rocheworld (1985) by Robert Forward and the maritime robots from Mare Nostrum (2022) by Bruce Sterling.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Mountain in the Sea
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Naylor
Tech news articles related to The Mountain in the Sea
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Naylor
| Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics |
| You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic... |
| ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's |
| When Colds Threaten You Can't Do This - Or Can You? |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
