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"[Science fiction] has become big business, where books are merchandised and promoted and distributed and placed on sale like slabs of bacon or cans of soup."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Robot Clerk | ||
| An autonomous clerical unit - a robot that could wait on you in a store. |
| The robot clerk in the waiting-room checked her number, then let her into the little room where the towering Counselor took up all of one wall. She shut the inward-locking door, peered through the one-way glass to watch the robot go back to its desk, and lay down on the long couch.
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| Technovelgy from Throwback,
by Miriam Allen deFord. Published by Startling Stories in 1952 Additional resources -
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Isaac Asimov also uses the idea of a robot clerk in his 1954 story Caves of Steel:
The manager of the store was cooling down, adjusting his twisted jacket, smoothing his hair, muttering angry threats at the vanishing crowd. One of the robot clerks advanced on the cowering woman with the hat and removed a shoe deftly. The robot’s eye regarded it dispassionately for half a moment, then called out. “Size 6-C, last 14-X Alcove D-second shelf.” A second clerk was already on the way to the indicated section.
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Tech news articles related to Throwback
Tech news articles related to works by Miriam Allen deFord
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...'
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
