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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Mandroid | ||
| A humanoid robot; a robot in the shape of a person. |
There are hundreds of thousands of robots working in factories today. But they don’t look anything like a human being; their shape is dependent on their function.
| I turned to face the approaching mandroid. Its entire body was the same polished gunmetal, molded into the nuscle configuration of an archetypal human male.The head was carved into furows to represent thick back-combed hair... The green photoreceptor gaze regarded me gravely. The mandroid became quite still... On Harlan's World, you don't see many mandroids. They're expensive to build, compared to a synthetic or even a clone, and most jobs that require a human form are better done by those organic alternatives. |
| Technovelgy from Altered Carbon,
by Richard Morgan. Published by Del Rey in 2003 Additional resources -
|
Morgan has some interesting things to say about the use of humanoid robots; his perspective is that machines are expensive, but human labor is cheap, because there are so many of them and they reproduce cheaply.
This word seems to derive from a cheesy science fiction movie of the early 1990’s. It is also the name of a “breakdancer / producer / plasterer from Barnsley in South Yorkshire.”
The term has also surfaced in The X-Files. In the episode "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'", when Blaine Faulkner is describing his encounter with Mulder, he describes him this way: "And the other one, the tall lanky one, his face was so blank and expressionless. He didn't seem human. I think he was a mandroid. The only time he reacted was when he saw the dead alien."
(Thanks to Justin for writing in.)
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Additional
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and Technology from Altered Carbon
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and Technology by Richard Morgan
Tech news articles related to Altered Carbon
Tech news articles related to works by Richard Morgan
Mandroid-related
news articles:
- Tesla Bot Humanoid 'Robot' Vs. Boston Dynamics Atlas Parkour Robot
| Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones |
| It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned! |
| Tactile Skin Supplier Map |
| Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
