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The Well-Oiled Machine by H.B. Fyfe:
Science Fiction Inventions, Technology and Ideas

"The idea of usuform robots, i.e., mechanicals who are not necessarily humanoid, but are designed to accomplish a specific task with maximum efficiency, is not a new one in science fiction. But H. B. Fyfe's idea of a magazine editor s office manned (or plagued) with such robots is new — madly, hilariously so!

We, who read some hundred manuscripts a week, would deeply appreciate the services of a mechanical assistant especially designed to synopsize and appraise plots. It would certainly save eyestrain — although Mr. Fyfe, who has a sympathetic awareness of the perils inherent in editing, feels that there would be other, greater strains. He seems to think, for example, that the best adjusted robots can get psychoneurotic after a few months labor in an editorial office. Not only robots, say we!"

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