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"It wasn't until I was past forty that it bacame clear that I was going to be quote, successful, unquote."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Robot Manifesto | ||
| A linotype machine demands its rights. |
A Linotype machine (used to set type for printing) has received an unusual upgrade; it has started to absorb the words it typesets.
| "It's Saturday," he told me, "and it's gone on a
five-day, forty-hour week. I made the mistake of
setting type yesterday for a book on Socialism and
labor relations, and... well, apparently... you
see" He reached into the top drawer of his desk. "Anyway, here's a galley proof of the manifesto it issued this morning, demanding its rights..." And as he did these mechanical duties George told me, it came to him fully that the Linotype no longer worked for him; he was working for the Linotype. Why it wanted to set type he didn't know and it didn't seem to matter. After all, that was what it was for, and probably it was instinctive. Or, as I suggested and he agreed was possible, it was interested in learning. And it read and assimilated by the process of typesetting. Vide: the effect in terms of direct action of its reading the Socialist books. |
| Technovelgy from ETAOIN SHRDLU,
by Frederic Brown. Published by Unknown Worlds in 1942 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the robot strike from Robots of the World! Arise! (1952) by Mari Wolf, the general strike of the robots from Rex (1934) by Harl Vincent, and the "metallic Marx" from The Robots Strike (1959) by Harry Harrison.
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
