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"In 1977, it took about eight months for a slightly faster more refined mechanism to put punk in the window of Holt Renfrew. It's gotten faster ever since."
- William Gibson
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| Human Supervision Of Robots | ||
| The notion that there should be a rule that groups of robots should always have human supervision and direction. |
In this story, there was a law requiring that groups of robots, however capable, were never sent out on their own to accomplish a mission.
| He was not a salesman and he was not a spacehand; he was not any of the things that the robots were or could be.
He was just a human, period, a necessary cog in a team of robots.
 (Transmog robot in 'Installment Plan' by Clifford Simak) There was a law that said no robot or no group of robots could be assigned a task without human supervision, but that was not the whole of it. It was, rather, something innate in the robot makeup, not built into them, but something that was there and always might be there — the ever-present link between the robot and his human.
 ('Installment Plan' by Clifford Simak) Sent out alone, a robot team would blunder and bog down, would in the end become unstuck entirely — would wind up worse than useless. With a human accompanying them, there was almost no end to their initiative and their capability. It might, he thought, be their need of leadership, although in very truth the human member of the team sometimes showed little of that. It might be the necessity for some symbol of authority and yet, aside from their respect and consideration for their human, the robots actually bowed to no authority. It was something deeper, Sheridan told himself, than mere leadership or mere authority. It was comparable to the affection and rapport which existed as an undying bond between a man and dog and yet it had no tinge of the god-worship associated with the dog. |
| Technovelgy from Installment Plan,
by Clifford Simak. Published by Galaxy in 1959 Additional resources -
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'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
