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
"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Digger Worm | ||
| A robot shaped like a fat snake, or worm; used for mining. |
A small planet named Botea has IIIB diamonds, selectively conductive crystals that are used to make kilolayered computer chips. Handily, they are not far below the surface, buried in nice soft coal deposits. What sort of machine do you send down below the surface?
| "I think this is the worm." He knelt down and began clearing the chunks of yellow coal away. Under it was the smooth gray of the worm's grinding head...
"Where are the exploders?" she said. "Inside the mouth. We won't be able to get at them, but the controls should be right here, at the back of its head." He swept away more rubble to reveal a beveled rectangle and flipped up the control plate. "When a worm's digging a new trail, it spits out an exploder, backs up to a safe distance, and detonates it..." The worm gave a low growl and shudder and reared its gray metal head clear of the coal rubble... |
| From With Friends Like These,
by Connie Willis. Published by Tor in 1985 Additional resources -
|
This item appears in one of the short stories in Berserker's Base, by Fred Saberhagen.
Thanks to Tim Morrison for suggesting this item.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from With Friends Like These
More Ideas
and Technology by Connie Willis
Tech news articles related to With Friends Like These
Tech news articles related to works by Connie Willis
Digger Worm-related
news articles:
- Snake Robot Roundup: Part Two
- Robotic Fire Hose Anna Konda
- Pipeline Explorer Untethered Robotic Snake
| Phil Nuyttnn's City Under The Sea |
| Stick-On Tape Speakers, As Predicted By Bruce Sterling |
| Has Climate Change Already Been Solved By Aliens? |
| Skin Electronics 3D Printed |
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.
|
'Of course not a vehicle moved by means of internal explosions of a derivative of rock oil...'
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
'If you couldn't see the ads, how would you know what was fashionable?'
'Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed.'
'Had these machines in some incredible fashion been provided with brains?'
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE what we wanted and she took care of it'
'Under the lower roof there was no water, but a clear and luminous atmosphere...'
