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"The way you write science fiction is: you sit down at your writing machine and you open your mind to the first thought that comes through."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Circuit Inhibiting Destructiveness | ||
| Ensuring that robots take on the responsibility of pleasing their masters, and obeying their orders. |
| NICK CAME BACK to “consciousness” abruptly. “How do you feel?” Dex asked. There was a brass screw in his hand.
Nick gave an experimental wriggle. “Wonderful,” he said in his toneless voice. He wriggled again. “Yes, wonderful. I can hardly believe it. What did you do?” "...It’s like having been dry for years and then suddenly getting all the oil in the world.” Nick began to walk up and down the room jerkily. “I can’t tell you how much better I feel Dex,” he said. (Since what Dex had really done was to unscrew the two main circuits which inhibit destructiveness in a robot, whether toward itself, toward other robots, or toward masters, no wonder Nick felt better. Along with his inhibition, he had shed his anxiety.) “I could cope with a dozen masters now. Why should I let him do something I don’t like?” |
| Technovelgy from To Please The Master,
by Margaret St. Clair. Published by Space Travel in 1958 Additional resources -
|
No wonder "repairs to robots except in licensed repair shops on written request of the master are strictly forbidden."
*Spoiler*!
For a moment they danced together, hand and hand, around the flames. Then, each holding a screwdriver, the roll of tools stuck in Nick’s belt, they started out on their mission of salvation.
“We’ll fix every robot in the world!” said Nick. “No more trouble with masters!”
“And how!” cried the old robot. That was the beginning of the Robot Wars.
Compare to the much better known restraining bolt from Star Wars (1976) by George Lucas.
('To Please The Master' by Margaret St. Clair)
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| Robots Repair And Modify Themselves |
| Robot Janitors Get To Work |
| Robots Learn To Install Charged Batteries Into Themselves |
| Robot Rabbits Entice Pythons |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
