Digesting Duck of Jacques de Vaucanson
Gastrobots and fantasies
Gastrobots or "stomach robots" or robots that eat normal food are interesting tools. Their origin is in the Digesting Duck of Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782).
In some military visions, the "Digesting Duck" would equip with the plastic explosive wire that it can deliver after it. That means the robot would walk into the yard and leave the wire of plastic explosives after it. And then the operators must just push the detonator.
There is created the version of that robot that drinks alcohol or gasoline. That means the system needs only refueling sometimes. There is introduced a system that uses compost. In that model, the robot eats normal food that is rotting in the chamber. That process creates methane. And that robot uses methane in its fuel cells.
There is the possibility that an alcohol-using robot is also using bioreactors for making their fuel. The hive, sugar, and starch are turning 96% alcohol. That alcohol can use as fuel.
But there is the possibility that the alimentary canal would install the "gastro-robot". There is a lot of rotten food. And the robot is easy to put into the alimentary channel. The robot's core can create by using silicone. And that makes the system can move in the stomach by using the remote control or independent control.
And the robot tapeworm can take the food for its compost and that food can make methane inside the robot. The robot can also use the stomach acids for making electricity for that system. This kind of system can for removing tumors from the intestines.
Cover art from Finnish translation of "Hardwired". (Pinterest)
The gastro-robot played a big role in the cyberpunk novel Hardwired.
In that fictional book, there is the gastro-robot. Inside the body of one character. In that novel, the gastro-robot was the assassination tool. When the system locates the target. The gastro-robot will come out from the throat and then it destroys the veins of the victim. The thing is that this kind of system can operate by using implanted microchips.
Or it can take its commands from the microchips that are in contact lenses or inside the eye. When the targeted person is in the right range. That face recognition would activate the attack program. The fact is that this kind of technology exists. And when we are making things like intelligent lenses that can communicate with other microchips. That system can also use for evil. In that novel, nobody told the person about that system. And that is the risk of the high-tech tools.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digesting_Duck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrobot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_Vaucanson
https://writingsaboutmysteries.blogspot.com/
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