Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The planet's immune system is doing everything it can. The planet's immune system is doing everything it can."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Claws (Attack Robot) | ||
| Autonomous guard robots that attack living tissue. |
They are made in underground factories; they come up from underground and attack anything that lives.
| Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday. A metal sphere, it raced up the hill after the Russian, its treads flying. It was small, one of the baby ones. Its claws were out, two razor projections spinning in a blur of white steel. The Russian heard it. He turned instantly, firing... already a second had emerged and was following the first...
A third sphere leaped up the Russian's leg, clicking and whirring. It jumped to the shoulder. The spinning blades disappeared into the Russian's throat. |
| From Second Variety,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Space in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Here's a little more detail:
Off to the right something scuttled, something round and metallic. A claw, going lickety-split after something. Probably after a small animal, a rat. They got rats, too. As a sort of sideline.
The claws got faster and they got bigger. New types appeared, some with feelers, some that flew. There were a few jumping kinds...
Some of the little claws were learning to hide themselves, burrowing down into the ash, lying in wait.
And they started getting into bunkers, slipping down when the lids were raised for air and a look around. One claw inside a bunker, a churning sphere of blades and metal - that was enough. And when one got in others followed.
This short story was the inspiration for the 1995 film Screamers.
"It doesn't take them long. Not after the first one gets in. It goes wild. You know what the little claws can do. Even one of these is beyond belief. Razors, each finger. Maniacal."
(Claws - or Screamers - from the 1995 movie)
Screamers are the claws described above, "...churning sphere of blades and metal ... spinning, creeping, shaking themselves up suddenly from the grey ash..." to attack any warm body.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Second Variety
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to Second Variety
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Claws (Attack Robot)-related
news articles:
- Screamers - PKD's Claws - The Robotic Research Begins
- Soldiers Learn To Trust Robots
- Robotic Underground Munitions
- Armed Robots Bad Idea
- 'Sandfish' Robot Moves Through Sand
- Coman Bully-Resistant Robot
- Self-Burying Robots - What Could Go Wrong?
- PUFFER Robots - From Philip K DIck's Second Variety?
| Robots Help People Get Dressed, As Predicted In 1931 |
| Robot Snake Flies, Fights Fires |
| IPAL Chinese Robot Babysitter |
| DIY Autonomous Robot Detects Trash |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Negligible increase in weight increased material strength by hundreds of times.
'All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.'
The number of different ways to span a thread between a larger number of hooks is astronomical.
'This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck, of course.'
What's it like for autonomous trams when they're turned off at night?
'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
