Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

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 people dealing with these new technologies will still be derived from the human stock we're familiar with today."
- Charles Stross

Stick-Tight  
  A general term for surveillance devices that will follow a subject and record speech or video.  

Vance provides an interesting variety of spy devices, both mechanical and animal.

Suthiro knit his furry brown eyebrows in puzzlement, glanced for the most fleeting instant upward.

Gersen continued, "There is a stick-tight watching us, although I have not yet located it. Its microphone probably registers our conversation...

Technovelgy from The Star King, by Jack Vance.
Published by Berkeley in 1964
Additional resources -

According to Vance, the stick-tight comes in at least five different variations:

  • "The servo-optical -- a spy cell supported by rotary wings, remotely guided by an operator."
  • "The automatic -- a similar cell to follow a radioactive or monochromatic tag fixed to, or smeared upon, a man or vehicle."
  • "The Culp spy master -- a semi-intelligent flying creature, trained to follow any subject of interest; clever, cooperative, reliable, but relatively large and noticeable."
  • "The Manx spy bird -- a smaller, less obtrusive creature, trained to perform similarly; less docile and intellegent, more aggressive."
  • "The Manx spy bird modification -- similar to the above, equipped with control devices."
You might want to take a look at a tiny modern-day device that seems to be just what Vance was talking about with his servo-optical stick-tight - the uFR-II micro flying robot. It even has image recording capability!

Thanks to an anonymous reader for providing the source and the quote.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Star King
  More Ideas and Technology by Jack Vance
  Tech news articles related to The Star King
  Tech news articles related to works by Jack Vance

Stick-Tight-related news articles:
  - Wing-Morphing Micro Air Vehicles
  - Aeryon Scout UAV Gets Upgrades
  - Eye-bot Lands On Your Ceiling
  - Drones Stick Tight, Remember Your Face

Articles related to Surveillance
Chameleon Personalized Privacy Protection Mask
Spherical Police Robot Rolls In China
Vietnam To Have Full Biometric Transparency
Simple Way To Defeat AI Face Recognition

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>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Science Fiction in the News

Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'

Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'

Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'

Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'

Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'

Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.

'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'

Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'

Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'

DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.