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"I think that self-limitation is the major limiting factor for most people in the world."
- Frank Herbert
 |
| Recording Eye | ||
| A surveillance device that can survive being dropped from space; transmits images in a wide view. |
At this point in the novel, manipulative Charles Boardman is trying to persuade the novel's protagonist, Dick Muller, to take on a risky first-contact assignment. He shows him a video of the aliens themselves.
| Muller saw a cloud-wrapped planet... it could have been Venus... The recording eye pierced the cloud layer and revealed an unfamiliar, not very Earthlike planet. The soil looked moist and spongy, and rubbery trees that looked like giant toadstools thrust upward from it...
...three alien figures came strolling through the somber grove. They were elongated, almost spidery, with clusters of eight or ten jointed limbs depending from their narrow shoulders... One of them paused, bent peered closely at the ground. It scooped up the eye that had been witnessing its activities. The image grew chaotic; Muller guessed that the eye was being passed from hand to hand... Boardman said, "That was taken less than a month ago. We parked a drone ship fifty thousand kilometers up and dropped roughly a thousand eyes on Beta Hydri IV. At least half went straight to the bottom of the ocean... This was the only one that actually showed us a clear view of the aliens." |
| From The Man in the Maze,
by Robert Silverberg. Published by Avon Books in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Although he obviously gives no details on how such a device would function, the strategy is obviously workable, providing an alternative to human exploration that could actually work. For a look at a strikingly similar device, see the Omnidirectional EyeBall Surveillance Sensor. You also might be interested in the throwbot, a similar idea in a more 'terrestrial' format.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Man in the Maze
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and Technology by Robert Silverberg
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Tech news articles related to works by Robert Silverberg
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- PongSats - Tiny 'Satellites' At Space's Edge
- Rapid Deployment Integrated Surveillance System (RDISS)
- I-Ball Grenade Cam Just Lob And View
| ViconRevue Records Every Minute of Your Life |
| Yes, Internet Eyes Is A 'Snooper's Paradise' |
| See Through Walls With Wireless Networks |
| Secret GPS Tracking Devices Legal |
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Gerry was dubious. She had seen abortive attempts at paralysis rays before.
Let your fingers - uh - your robot do the walking. And hopping.
