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"I was wholly addicted to watching Kojack, for as long as it was on television."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Carer-Type Robot | ||
| A general-purpose robot designed to help care for humans. |
| “Got a new one for you,” the mover said. Small man, in neat overalls, wheeling the box on the stacker. That’s what the robot saw when they opened the box and let it out. It stepped cautiously out into sunshine. An unfamiliar city skyline, a boxy whitewashed building in front of him, a busy-looking woman in a blue dress examining the manifesto.
“Can it cook?” she said. “Cook, clean, sing lullabies,” the mover said. “I gotta go, I have another half-dozen to deliver.” “All right, Sami. See you,” the woman said. She turned to the robot. “Do you have a name?” she said. “R76-2,” the robot said. It was the first time it had spoken since the tests in the lab. “R76?” the woman said. “Dash two.” “I’m going to call you Orson,” the woman said. “I’m Mrs. Abbas. Do you know where you are?” “I do not, Mrs. Abbas,” the robot—Orson—said. “This is Neom. You are a general purpose, carer-type, correct?” “Yes, Mrs. Abbas.” “Then you should know what to do.” |
| Technovelgy from The Robot,
by Lavie Tidhar. Published by Uncanny Magazine in 2024 Additional resources -
|
This excerpt shows the carer-type robot at work:
Compare to the robant from The Impossible Planet (1953) by Philip K. Dick.
“I’m dying, you know,” Mr. Hammid said.
“I know, Baba,” the robot said. It wiped the sweat from Mr. Hammid’s face gently with the cloth. It was dark in the room, the ceiling fan turning lazily overhead. The lights of the city rose outside, beyond the window, skyscrapers and minarets and floating street lanterns, but their light remained outside where it belonged.
“I don’t want to die,’ Mr. Hammid said. “I have so much still to do.”
“I know, Baba,” the robot said.
“It hurts,” Mr. Hammid said. “I didn’t think it would hurt so much.”
The robot wondered at this concept, pain. It dipped the cloth in cool water and touched it to Mr. Hammid’s forehead. Mr. Hammid closed his eyes. His breathing was shallow.
“Sing me a song,” Mr. Hammid said.
“Of course.”
The robot had sung the song many times, to many patients. It seemed to please them. It began. “Hush now, my baby, sleep now has come, sleep now, my baby, may all your dreams be kind…”
When the robot stopped singing Mr. Hammid’s breath had left his body, and he was still. The robot had seen many humans die, but the why of it remained a mystery to both it and them. It wheeled Mr. Hammid’s body to the Room of Final Rest and contemplated mortality.
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'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
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