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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Robus | ||
| A robotic bus. |
Polite and soft-spoken, this automated transport shows more humility than many other robots.
| A wheeled machine of some kind was rolling toward them over a smooth surface of polished stone...
The machine was obviously a transport. Rolling on its eight wheels, it swept swiftly nearer, and Dekkin saw that it was large enough to hold all of his men... The machine, starlight-trapped and mellowed in the dull sheen of its metal, stopped directly in front of them. A door on its side opened, folded down. As it touched the platform, its metal shivered and then, incredibly, it began to melt. It twisted, still fluidly changing shape, and became a set of impossibly proportioned steps. There was a click, and soft lighting flooded its interior. Dekkin stepped forward hesitantly. "I beg your pardon.” The voice was soft, mellow, and it spoke perfect Deelin in a perfect accent... "It was I who spoke. I am a robus. My apologies. It took me a few moments to perform the required analysis and alter my circuits accordingly.” Dekkin stared at the machine’ his mouth suddenly dry. The steps had re-aligned themselves, and the shape of the doorway had altered. The interior lighting had changed to a more pleasant shade. "Please accept my services,” the robus said. |
| Technovelgy from Terror in the Stars,
by John A. Sentry. Published by Fantastic Universe in 1955 Additional resources -
|
It turns out that the robus is just for transport.
"Yes.”
"And you are not unusual. Am I correct? Your duties are to welcome visitors. But there are other machines, with other duties, and with just as many talents as you possess?”
"Far greater talents,” the robus said. "I am only a single-purpose mechanism.”
Compare to the automatobus from Sally (1953) by Isaac Asimov, the autobus from Tidal Moon (1938) by Stanley G. and Helen Weinbaum and the robotic conductor from Philip K. Dick's 1953 short story Paycheck.
He scrutinized the machine more intently. "The Ras built and taught you?” he asked.
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'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
