Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Consumption Robots | ||
| Humanoid robots placed in the position of consuming material goods to relieve human beings of the burden. |
In The Midas Plague, people were obligated to consume. By consuming more and more, you could graduate to higher levels of society, where you might actually have fewer things and more time to yourself.
Or, you could get robots to do your consumption for you.
| There was the butler robot, hard at work, his copper face expressionless. Dressed in Morey's own sports knickers and golfing shoes, the robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again, with Morey's own clubs. Until the ball wore ragged and was replaced: and the shafts of the clubs leaned out of true; and the close-stitched seams of the clothing began to stretch and abrade.
“My God!” said Morey hollowly. There were the maid-robots, exquisitely dressed in Cherry’s best, walking up and down in the delicate, slim shoes, sitting and rising and bending and turning. The cook-robots and the serving-robots were preparing dionysian meals. Morey swallowed. “You—you’ve been doing this right along,” he said to Henry. “That’s why the quotas have been filled.” “Oh, yes, sir. Just as you told us.” Morey had to sit down. One of the serving-robots politely scurried over with a chair, brought from upstairs for their new chores. Waste. Morey tasted the word between his lips. Waste. You never wasted things. You used them. If necessary, you drove yourself to the edge of breakdown to use them; you made every breath a burden and every hour a torment to use them, until through diligent consuming and/or occupational merit, you were promoted to the next higher class, and were allowed to consume less frantically. But you didn’t wantonly destroy or throw out. You consumed. Morey thought fearfully: When the Board finds out about this… Still, he reminded himself, the Board hadn’t found out. It might take some time before they did, for humans, after all, never entered robot quarters. There was no law against it, not even a sacrosanct custom. But there was no reason to. When breaks occurred, which was infrequently, maintenance robots or repair squads came in and put them back in order. Usually the humans involved didn’t even know it had happened, because the robots used their own TBR radio circuits and the process was next thing to automatic. |
| Technovelgy from The Midas Plague,
by Frederik Pohl. Published by Galaxy in 1954 Additional resources -
|
Here's an illustration taken from the original publication of the story in Galaxy.
Compare to the electrical valet from The Lord of Tranerica (1939) by Stanton A. Coblentz, the butler-valet robot from The Jester (1951) by William Tenn, the robant from The Impossible Planet (1953) by Philip K. Dick, the robutler from The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970) by Harry Harrison and the autobutle from The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Midas Plague
More Ideas
and Technology by Frederik Pohl
Tech news articles related to The Midas Plague
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl
Consumption Robots-related
news articles:
- PETMAN Robot Video Shows Non-Human Origin
- Belvedere The Robot Butler
- Ping Pong Robot Analyzes Own Game
- PETMAN Bipedal Robot Tests Your Future
- PETMAN Robot Video
- Qrio Robot Golfer
- HERB Home Exploring Robot Butler
- Pet-Proto Robot Video Stops Bad Terminator Dreams
- PETMAN Robot Marches On
- Petman Robot Pushes Itself To The Limit
- Golf Robot Putts Out
- Kuka Robots Mastering Tennis Now
| PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers |
| Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along |
| Robot Guard Dog On Duty |
| Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
