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"Science fiction and science have always danced around each other. Science fiction is the subconscious of science."
- Greg Bear
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| Voice-Clock | ||
| A clock that could state the time out loud. |
I included this item because I thought that it might be an early use of this idea.
| In the living room the voice-clock, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would.
Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric eyes. Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one! |
| Technovelgy from The Martian Chronicles,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Various in 1950 Additional resources -
|
This item comes from the story There Will Come Soft Rains, published in 1950.
I was surprised to find that the talking clock was one of the earliest proposed uses of the Edison 'talking machine', also known as the phonograph. Thomas Edison signed a contract with the Ansonia Clock Company on January 7, 1878 to develop a talking clock using the phonograph.
It turns out that one of the original lead cylinders survives from 1878, and is probably the world's oldest playable recording. Read a bit more at early talking machines.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Martian Chronicles
More Ideas
and Technology by Ray Bradbury
Tech news articles related to The Martian Chronicles
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Bradbury
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'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
'There were cubic miles of it, and it glistened like a silvery Christmas tree...'
'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...'
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
