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    Science Fiction: Robots & Cyborgs
    Science Fiction: Robots & Cyborgs
    Science Fiction: Robots & Cyborgs
    Ebook36 pages27 minutes

    Science Fiction: Robots & Cyborgs

    By Richard S. Levine

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This is a collection of four stories written by Richard S. Levine. Each story includes one or more robots or cyborgs.

    In "A Floccinaucinihilipilificatious Life", Floccin wonders if he's alive. "Like Mother, Like Son" is a story about a different kind of sale. "Agent Lenore" features Galactic's virtual travel agents, and "Coded Obsession" examines Bert's OCD and his Portacy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRichard S. Levine
    Release dateApr 21, 2011
    ISBN9781458015082
    Science Fiction: Robots & Cyborgs
    Author

    Richard S. Levine

    Richard S. Levine has been a math teacher, a software engineer, and a video games designer. Now he's busy writing speculative fiction. He has had stories published in Emerald Tales, OG's Speculative Fiction, Raygun Revival, The Fifth Di, The Lorelei Signal, and other online and print magazines. "A Comic on Phobos" received a nomination for Samsdotpublishing's James award. To learn more about Mr. Levine's writings and his award winning classic video game, "Microsurgeon", please visit his website. You can also check out my interests on Pinterest at pinterest.com/ricklev/.

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      Book preview

      Science Fiction - Richard S. Levine

      Science Fiction: Robots & Cyborgs

      By Richard S. Levine

      Copyright © 2011 Richard S. Levine

      Smashwords Edition

      Discover other titles by Richard S. Levine at

      http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/richardslevine

      * * * * *

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      The following stories were written by Richard S. Levine. Each story includes one or more robots or cyborgs. In A Floccinaucinihilipilificatious Life, Floccin wonders if he's alive. Like Mother, Like Son is a story about a different kind of sale. Agent Lenore features Galactic’s virtual travel agents, and Coded Obsession examines Bert’s OCD and his Portacy.

      Contents

      A Floccinaucinihilipilificatious Life

      Like Mother, Like Son

      Agent Lenore

      Coded Obsession

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      A Floccinaucinihilipilificatious Life

      This story was published in OG’s Speculative Fiction, Issue #16 (Jan 2009). The first chess program I ever designed and coded used just four thousand assembly language instructions, but even with that limited complexity it made choices in its moves that I would not have predicted. I wondered what a group of little robots might choose to do if given quite a bit more intelligence.

      * * * * *

      The millibot Floccin beeped twice when his power turned on. A single question entered his thoughts: Am I alive? His self-check module reported that Sanjay Patel had upgraded his AI to version 2.0. Security subroutines verified that the change was valid and necessary.

      Floccin lifted the lens caps on his front and back infrared ranging sensors. His visioning system started to discern boundaries of halls and walls. Flash memory storage confirmed that he’d started the procedure 3,471 times before. He had no memory of this particular geo-location or how he got there.

      Looking like a couple of old 35mm film rolls coupled together with rubber bands, his tiny wheels rolled forward. Built-in frontal sonar for local range finding indicated that Aucin, always equipped with an infrared thermometer unit to

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