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"There's a poetry in the materials we use to construct our world of artifacts; it speaks of our long history as a technological species."
- William Gibson
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| Robot Mice | ||
| Tiny cleaning robots. |
This item comes from a short story that is a Cold War classic, and well worth reading.
| Nine-fifteen, sang the clock, time to clean.
Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted. The rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust. Then, like mysterious invaders, they popped into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes faded. The house was clean. |
| Technovelgy from The Martian Chronicles,
by Ray Bradbury. Published by Various in 1950 Additional resources -
|
And for larger items, the 'copper scrap rats' would come and seize the offending matter with their miniature jaws.
Although the iRobot Roomba is perhaps more famous, the world's first automatic vacuum cleaner is the Electrolux Trilobite, presented to the public on the BBC in 1997.
This item comes from the story There Will Come Soft Rains, published in 1950.
(Wally Woods' cartoon version)
Robot mouse fans might also be interested in the Greg Bear's dustmice, tiny robotic detectives from his 1990 novel Queen of Angels. As far as I know, the first example of this kind of technovelgy are the golden shuttles from a 1941 story by Eric Frank Russell (writing under a pseudonym).
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Additional
resources:
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
Robot Mice-related
news articles:
- Electrolux Trilobite: Programmable Robot Vacuum Cleaner
- AMouse: Bradbury's Robot Mice Get Real Whiskers
- BIOTACT Whiskered Robot Rat
- Fukitorimushi Floor-Cleaning Robot - An Inchworm Dust Mop
- SCRATCHbot Robot Rat Whiskers Video
- Mini Robot Swarms
- Kilobot Robot Swarm
- Shrewbot Uses Whiskers As Sensors
- OMG! DIY Arduino Robot Vacuum Cleaner Like Bradbury's Mice
- Autonomous Robots Navigate Like Rats
| Mornine Sales Robot |
| Bipedal Robot Floats Gently While Walking |
| YES!! Remote Teleoperated Robots predicted by Technovelgy! |
| Will Robots Ever Fold Landry? |
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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
