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Positronic Brains
A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for robots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans. When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939 and 1940, the positron was a newly discovered particle, and so the buzz word "positronic" added a scientific connotation to the concept. Asimov's 1942 short story " Runaround" elaborates his fictional Three Laws of Robotics, which are ingrained in the positronic brains of nearly all of his robots. Conceptual overview Asimov remained vague about the technical details of positronic brains except to assert that their substructure was formed from an alloy of platinum and iridium. They were said to be vulnerable to radiation and apparently involve a type of volatile memory (since robots in storage required a power source keeping their brains "alive"). The focus o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. The TARDIS exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. With various companions, the Doctor combats foes, works to save civilisations, and helps people in need. Beginning with William Hartnell, thirteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; in 2017, Jodie Whittaker became the first woman to officially play the role on television. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the series with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation, a plot device in which a Time Lord "transforms" into a new body when the current one is too badly harmed to heal normally. Each acto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctor Who (season 4)
The fourth season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' began on 10 September 1966 with the First Doctor (William Hartnell) story ''The Smugglers'' and, after a change of lead actor (Patrick Troughton) part-way through the series, ended on 1 July 1967 with ''The Evil of the Daleks''. For the first time, the entire main cast changed over the course of a single season (the only other occasion this has happened is during Season 21). Only 10 out of 43 episodes survive in the BBC archives; 33 remain missing. No serials in this season exist in their entirety. However, ''The Tenth Planet'', ''The Power of the Daleks'', ''The Moonbase'', ''The Macra Terror'', ''The Faceless Ones'' and ''The Evil of the Daleks'' have currently had their missing episodes (twenty five in total) reconstructed with animation and subsequently have been released on home media. Casting Main cast * William Hartnell as the First Doctor * Anneke Wills as Polly * Michael Craze as Ben J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vision (Marvel Comics)
The Vision is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, the character first appeared in ''The Avengers (comic book), Avengers'' #57 (published in August 1968, with a cover date of October 1968), and is loosely based on the Timely Comics Vision (Timely Comics), character of the same name who was an alien from another dimension. The Vision is an Android (robot), android (sometimes called a "synthezoid") built by the villainous robot Ultron created by Hank Pym. Originally intended to act as Ultron's "son" and destroy the Avengers (comics), Avengers, Vision instead turned on his creator and joined the Avengers to fight for the forces of good. Since then, he has been depicted as a frequent member of the team, and, for a time, was married to his teammate, the Scarlet Witch. He also served as a member of the Defenders (comics), Defenders. The Vision was created from a copy of the origina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov's Caliban
The ''Robot'' series is a series of 37 science fiction short stories and six novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring positronic robots. Later, Asimov would merge the ''Robot'' series with his ''Foundation'' series. Robot novels and stories The series started in 1940, with the story "Robbie" in the September 1940 ''Super Science Stories'' (appearing under the title "Strange Playfellow", which was not Asimov's title). Although it was originally written as a stand-alone story, the following year Asimov published a series of additional robot stories, which fit together into a narrative that was then put together as the book ''I, Robot''. List of works in the Robot series, in chronological order by narrative # ''I, Robot'' (1950) and later collections: ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), ''Robot Dreams'' (1986), ''Robot Visions'' (1990), and ''Gold'' (1995). #* In 1964, ''The Rest of the Robots'' was published - all of the short stories in that collection are found in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger MacBride Allen
Roger MacBride Allen (born September 26, 1957) is an American science fiction author. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and grew up outside of Washington, D.C., graduating from Walt Whitman High School. He graduated from Boston University in 1979. His father is American historian and author Thomas B. Allen. Background Allen's family moved to Bethesda, Maryland when in 1966, when he was nine years old. He earned a degree in journalism from Boston University, after-which he returned to suburban Washington DC. Works ''Allies and Aliens'' *'' The Torch of Honor'' (1985) *'' Rogue Powers'' (1986) **'' Allies and Aliens'' (1995) collects ''The Torch of Honor'' and ''Rogue Powers'' ''Hunted Earth'' *'' The Ring of Charon'' (1990) *'' The Shattered Sphere'' (1994) *'' The Falling World'' (TBA) ''Caliban'' *'' Isaac Asimov's Caliban'' (1993) *'' Isaac Asimov's Inferno'' (1994) *'' Isaac Asimov's Utopia'' (1996) ''Chronicles of Solace'' *'' The Depths of Time'' (2000) *'' The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machine
A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecules, such as molecular machines. Machines can be driven by Animal power, animals and Human power, people, by natural forces such as Wind power, wind and Water power, water, and by Chemical energy, chemical, Thermal energy, thermal, or electricity, electrical power, and include a system of mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and plan movement, often called mechanical systems. Renaissance natural philosophers identified six simple machines which were the elementary devices that put a load into motion, and calculated the ratio of output force to input fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeroth Law Of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story " Runaround" (included in the 1950 collection ''I, Robot''), although they had been foreshadowed in some earlier stories. The Three Laws, quoted from the "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are: ;First Law :A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. ;Second Law :A robot must obey the orders by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. ;Third Law :A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. These form an organizing principle and unifying theme for Asimov's robotic-based fiction, appearing in his ''Robot'' series, the stories linked to it, and his ''Lucky Starr'' series of young-adult fiction. The Laws are inco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robots And Empire
''Robots and Empire'' is a science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov, published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's ''Robot'' series, which consists of many short stories (collected in ''I, Robot'', ''The Rest of the Robots'', ''The Complete Robot'', ''Robot Dreams'', ''Robot Visions'', and ''Gold'') and five novels (including ''The Positronic Man'', ''The Caves of Steel'', ''The Naked Sun'', and ''The Robots of Dawn''). ''Robots and Empire'' is part of Asimov's consolidation of his three major series of science fiction stories and novels into a single future history: his ''Robot'' series, his ''Galactic Empire'' series and his ''Foundation'' series. (Asimov also carried out this unification in ''Foundation's Edge'' and its sequel.) In the novel, Asimov depicts the transition from his earlier Milky Way Galaxy, inhabited by both human beings and positronic robots, to his Galactic Empire. The galaxy of his earlier trilogy of ''Robot'' novels is do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bottleneck
Bottleneck literally refers to the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stopp ... near its opening, which limit the volumetric flow rate, rate of outflow, and may describe any object of a similar shape. The literal neck of a bottle was originally used to play what is now known as slide guitar. Metaphorically, the term may also be used as an analogy for any of the following implications of rate limitation or function restriction: Computing * Bottleneck (network), in communication networks using max-min fairness * Bottleneck (software), a software component that severely affects application performance * Internet bottleneck, when high usage slows the performance on the Internet at a particular point * Von Neumann architecture#Von Neumann bottl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robopsychology
Robopsychology is the study of the personalities and behavior of intelligent machines. The term was coined by Isaac Asimov in the short stories collected in ''I, Robot'', which featured robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, and whose plots largely revolved around the protagonist solving problems connected with intelligent robot behaviour. The term has been also used in some academic studies from the field of psychology and human–computer interactions, and it refers to the study of the psychological consequences of living in societies where the application of robotics is becoming increasingly common. In real life Andrea Kuszewski, a self-described robopsychologist gives the following examples of potential responsibilities for a robopsychologist in Discover. *"Assisting in the design of cognitive architectures A cognitive architecture refers to both a theory about the structure of the human mind and to a computational instantiation of such a theory used in the fields of artificial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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