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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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| Telepresence Bulldozer | ||
| A bulldozer on the Moon that is operated remotely by a driver on Earth. |
We can see the future of telepresence in the following scenes from a documentary described in the novel:
| "Meet Rachel Lief," Lunan said. "Ms. Lief is a bulldozer driver." Lunan paused for effect. "As you see, Ms. Lief doesn't look like your typical tractor driver..."
"But then," Lunan said, "not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon." The cameras followed the trim woman into another room, where there was a replica of a large tractor. It was surrounded by TV screens. One screen showed an astronaut sitting in the driver's seat, staring impatiently into the screen. A bleak, nearly colorless pit showed over his left shoulder. "About time you got here," the astronaut said. "We were busy," Rachel sat down in the driver's seat and took hold of the controls. "I relieve you..." The bulldozer moved through the lunar strip mine... "As you can see... this is no easy job. It takes over a second for the signal to get to the Moon, and over a second for the information to get back to her. It takes a lot of computer power to work this trick, but it's worth it. Meet Colonel Robert Boyd, commander of Moon Base." "Colonel Boyd, does it help to have Earth-based machine operators?" "Sure. It costs a lot to keep people on the Moon. Now it's like I have four or five times as many people up here, and I don't have to find air for them or feed them." |
| Technovelgy from Oath of Fealty,
by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven). Published by Timescape in 1981 Additional resources -
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and Technology from Oath of Fealty
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Tech news articles related to Oath of Fealty
Tech news articles related to works by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven)
Telepresence Bulldozer-related
news articles:
- Robotic Lunar 'MoonDigger' Bulldozers Planned By NASA
- Robotic Bulldozer Force Doubles In Israel
- Regolith Excavation Challenge Yields Prize Money
- NASA Project M Robot Avatar On Moon
- Moon Express Lunar Robot Mining: Shine On, Harvest Moon
- Lunatix Lunar Rover Will Accept YOUR Commands!
- Armano Remote Control Excavator
- Changesite Mineral To Be Mined On Moon By China
- REALLY Remote Control Excavators
- Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
| ISS Plagued By Leak - Again! |
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
