Robots Alchemy Androids, Cyborgs,
and the Magic of Artificial Life
by Texe Marrs
Chapter 7
The Robot Invasion
Talk stock market, computers, wines, autos, or economics and you’ll find some listeners interested,
some ambivalent, and a few just plain bored. But say the word “robot” and people’s ears perk right up.
Robots stir our imaginations with colorful visions of their appearances and abilities.
Everyone, it seems, loves to read and hear of the newest exploits of these electromechanical creatures.
We open our newspapers and almost every day read of new robots joining the work force. Our children
harangue us to buy them the latest toy robot, and the television networks love to broadcast vignettes about
humanlike home robots that, claim their makers, are capable of vacuuming the carpet, fetching a drink
from the “fridge,” or carrying on an animated conversation with the kids.
“Fantastic,” we exclaim. “Wow,” say our offspring.
Many of the stories and tales in this chapter will undoubtedly evoke a similar response.[ I seriously doubt that, at least from me, as I am no fan of A.I. dc]
Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Other Guys
The invasion began during the Christmas season. They came from the land of Tonka, Hasbro-Bradley,
Tomy and Bandai. Some came to do evil, to kill, but their cruel actions and ruthless behavior were met by
brave and daring warriors determined to stop them in their tracks. It all sounds so dramatic, and it was—for kids fascinated by robots.
Beginning in 1984, toy robots seized the hearts and minds of children as manufacturers introduced
model after model. Christmas season saw the robots installed as the top-selling toys; the people at the
Toys R Us chain, major department stores, and other retail outlets said it was phenomenal.
The TV networks in the United States caught on to the popular rage and soon new Saturday morning
series were offered for kids, featuring characters and crews such as Maxx Steele, RoboForce,
Transformers, and GoBots. Then, print cartoon characters like “Robotman” came onto the scene, some
syndicated by more than two hundred newspapers.
What makes the toy robots so popular? Many experts believe it is the good guy vs. bad guy theme. Kids
love to see hero robots get the better of evil robots plotting to do harm. For example, the leader of
Tonka’s GoBot bad guys is Cy-Kill, an ominous fellow who has the diabolical ability to turn himself into
a harmless-looking motorcycle. Hasbro-Bradley Toy Company, not to be outdone, offered up either
Heroic Autobots or Evil Deceptions. One Deception, SoundWave, at first appears innocent enough
disguised as a portable tape-cassette player. But when he intends to do harm, he quickly unfolds into a
robot whose motto is, “Cries and screams are music to my ears.”
Not to worry. The creative folks at the toy companies had a remedy for all this cruelty and treachery.
Bandai’s Golion is a big, impressive fellow who has the head, strength, and courage of a lion. Then
there’s Gardian, a protector-type who can zap the bad guys by letting fly one of the missiles emplaced just
below his knee. Ideal Toys’ MAXX STEELE™ is the hero as he enforces law and order and zooms in on
bad guy robots. And thank our lucky stars for Tonka’s friendly GoBots. If it weren’t for them, Cy-Kill and
his partner-in-crime, Zod, a part animal, part robot monster, would surely take over the earth.
“Halt! In the Name of the Robot”—Real-life Security Robots
“Halt! You have been detected,” shouts the short, stubby, robot guard. The prisoner freezes. He’s afraid to
disobey because this robot is armed with a powerful electric dart gun, and plays for keeps.
A number of companies are developing non-lethal robots designed for guard, watch robot, and sentry
duties. Some prototypes have already been built. One early model, Century I, is particularly intimidating.
For one thing, the robot is a giant—he’s seven feet tall and weighs 650 pounds. As if that weren’t enough,
Century I is bulletproof, and he can’t be bought off. He’s disciplined and expertly trained to carry out his
mission: to hunt out, detect, pursue, and capture intruders.
Century I’s manufacturer, Quasar Industries of New Jersey, says that the robot can be armed with
laughing gas, electric shock projectiles, a blinding strobe light, or a shrieking ultrasound device that
leaves the offender gasping in pain while clutching his/her ears.
Security robots are expected to be popular items once they’re perfected. Industry forecasters point out
that security is a $35.7 billion industry in the United States alone and that robots will allow the
replacement of many human guards, security police, night watchpersons, and retail store detectives. They
may also provide better protection than current electronic anti-burglary devices.
Robots are also ideal for use in prisons, where they will relieve human guards of the boredom and
even the danger of making rounds to check the inmates in their cells. Denning Mobile Robotics, a
Massachusetts company that already has a contract to manufacture five hundred such robots for jails, says
that the robots will be able to see, hear, and even smell escaping prisoners. Denning’s guard robots will
have microcomputers for a brain and will be equipped with infrared and ultrasonic sensors.
“The robots will be built to take a battering,” says Ben Wellington, Denning’s marketing vice president.
“They will be able to sense they are being battered and try to turn and run.” They won’t be armed but
instead they will report to human guards when they detect an escape, when they are being harmed, and
when a malfunction in their system occurs.
Obviously, this type of robot is one smart, tough cookie that convicts can’t con. A few prison experts
are already predicting that, before too many years, prisons will be totally automated, run by robots and
machines with only a warden overseer and a team of technicians to repair or replace robots.
Robots will also serve in the armed forces, where they will be called upon to guard sensitive military
installations. More about this in a later chapter.
The new robot security systems are already finding uses in homes. Personal robots RB5X, HERO,
ComRo and others equipped with security systems patrol residences at night, on the lookout for would-be
thieves and burglars. Most of these robots beam a photoelectric cell in the direction of doors and
windows. When the light beam is broken by an intruder, the robot bolts into action, announcing a
preprogrammed message such as, “Halt, you are trespassing. The police have been called.” The robot
then emits a piercing buzz or siren sound.
Cubot the Robot Solves Rubik’s™ Cube
Trying to solve the now-famous Rubik’s™ Cube captured the world’s attention some years ago and is still
a popular pastime. Now a small robot is doing what millions have tried to do—unscramble the puzzle in a
matter of minutes. Cubot is this machine’s given name, assigned by its originators at Battelle’s Pacific
Northwest Laboratories.
Although Cubot was developed as a fun, off-hours team effort, its purpose was to demonstrate
Battelle’s unique capabilities. “We wanted to show we can integrate sophisticated technologies in an
intelligent robot which can perform all aspects of a complex task,” says Dr. Michael Lind, spokesman for
Battelle. “Cubot combines electrooptics, microprocessing and mechanics to examine Rubik’s Cube,
compute a solution, and work the puzzle—three difficult individual tasks.”
Cubot is not the first robot to solve the intricate puzzle. “However, to the best of our knowledge, it is
the first fully self-contained robot that can complete the solution without human intervention once
someone turns the power on,” Lind said.
The portable robot, which weighs about seventy pounds and fits into a standard suitcase, uses its
components to solve Rubik’s Cube in much the same way as a human would solve the puzzle. A
scrambled cube is placed in a holding station where mechanical grippers (hands) rotate the cube to allow
the optical system (eye) to examine all six faces. The eye discriminates among and notes the location of
all six colors.
This information is relayed to one of the two microcomputers that comprise the robot’s brain; this
computer uses an algorithm (a pre-programmed sequence of steps used to solve a problem) to formulate
instructions. The robot’s second microcomputer uses these instructions to control the mechanical grippers
to move the cube faces to the correct positions.
“Cubot can solve any scrambled Rubik’s Cube in less than four minutes, but we hope to reduce this to
two minutes,” Lind said. He added that while the shortest solution time logged by a person is sixteen
seconds, most people who practice the puzzle and read cube-solution books take from one to five minutes.
The technologies used in Cubot have dozens of industrial applications. An intelligent robot of this sort
could be tailored to meet a wide variety of specific requirements. Lind cited manufacturing as an ideal
application.
“For example, a robot could be used in process control applications where parts or materials must be
identified, sorted, assembled and checked for performance and quality standards,” he explained. “If a part
was unsatisfactory, the robot could decide the next appropriate action and complete the procedure.”
Smart robots could also be used in hazardous environments inaccessible to humans, such as high
radiation areas in nuclear power plants. “An intelligent robot could enter these areas, assess the problem,
and, make necessary adjustments or repairs,” Lind says.
The World Robot Capital
Silicon Valley in California is the acknowledged computer capital of the world. Now, with robots surging
in popularity and becoming an industrial necessity, communities across the United States and even around
the globe are vying to become Earth’s robot capital—the center of this burgeoning high-tech growth
industry. Japan’s Tsukuba Science City is bristling with robotics research labs and could, within a quarter
of a century, be recognized as the robot metropolis. However, competition for the title is strong in Great
Britain where, at Melton Mowbray, a new robot R&D center has been opened to develop state-of-the-art
robotics systems.
Americans invented and put to work the first industrial robot, and they are not about to hold back from the robot race. In the U.S.A., the industries of automaking currently use the most robots; they’ve found a
home in the wide-spread automation of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and other plants. The automakers
have a number of their larger plants outside Michigan—across the river in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, for
example, and in Texas, in California, and elsewhere. Although those areas employ an army of robots,
most are produced elsewhere. In America, the two largest industrial robotics companies, Cincinnati
Milacron and Unimation (a Westinghouse subsidiary), make their robots in South Carolina and
Connecticut, respectively.
So which city or area will become the world’s center for robot technology? Experts say that although
there is no assured winner yet in the economic sweepstakes for robotics preeminence, the following
locales have taken the lead:
Boston—The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with resident Dr. Rodney Brooks,
and its pioneering robotics lab have been leaders in the field. What’s more, the prestigious
university has been the catalyst for the spin-off of a number of innovative entrepreneurial robot
and artificial intelligence firms, with such exotic names as Thinking Machines, Inc. and
Symbolics Computer. Robotics and artificial intelligence experts like Marvin Minsky and
Joseph Weizenbaum give the Boston area a decided advantage.
Pittsburgh—Carnegie-Mellon University’s highly respected Robotics Institute is at the forefront
of robot technology, and the U. S. Army has given the university money to set up a sophisticated
artificial intelligence software center. The reputation of Carnegie-Mellon has been boosted by
the accomplishments of scientists such as Hans Moravec.
Austin—Called the “second Silicon Valley,” Austin is the home of the University of Texas at
Austin, rated by experts as among the top five schools in the nation in computer science and
artificial intelligence. On the faculty is Delbert Tesar, head of the university’s center for
robotics research and a world-class specialist.
Indianapolis—The Midwest is not dead. In Indianapolis, they’re going for the gold—robotics
gold, that is. The Hoosiers have their impressive International Flexible Automation Center to
demonstrate automation and robotics to industry.
Dallas-Fort Worth—Defense plants such as the huge General Dynamics facility are quickly
hiring robots to build aircraft, missiles, and other aerospace products. In the suburbs, the
University of Texas at Arlington has a first-class robotics institute touted as likely to become
the best-equipped in the world.
Gainesville—Florida State University has its Center for Intelligent Machinery here with its
intensive robotics research capability. In the general area of north central Florida, a number of
small robotics firms have cranked up operations and the nickname “Robot Alley,” a parallel of
“Silicon Valley,” is catching on to describe the growing economic importance of the
concentration of such companies in this geographical area.
San Jose—San Jose is the largest city—the linchpin—of Silicon Valley, and so that community
begins with a big advantage. The hundreds of computer firms located here have all the talented
personnel necessary to provide the nucleus for a vigorous robotics industry. So far, the Silicon
Valley crowd hasn’t taken the lead in robotics, but they are beginning to quicken their pace.
Google recently hired Ray Kurzweil, robotics visionary, as Director of Engineering.
Other Contenders—Another area where robotics has gained a foothold is Rhode Island, thanks
to the work of robotics researchers at the University of Rhode Island. In Ohio, researchers at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base are developing military robots. Meanwhile, at Ohio State
University, researchers are building a huge robotic walking machine to be used by the U.S.
Army for military operations on tough terrain.
Japan: Land of the Robots
It may well be that the robotics capital will not be an American city; that honor—and the financial
rewards—may go to a metropolitan area in Japan. Today the Japanese produce and employ more robots
than any other nation. They expect to have one-to three-million robots at work on assembly lines by 2025.
Already, about 70 percent of all Japanese manufacturing companies have installed robots. And in
Fujiyama, Japan, at the Fujitsu Fanuc factory, robots are busy making other robots.
One of their incredible machines is the Waseda Robot, or Wabot; it’s a silver-metallic, six-foot-tall
talking android that weighs more than 275 pounds. Wabot is the brainchild of scientist Ichiro Kato of
Waseda University. Kato claims that his robot is only a “toddler,” and that he’s working on more
sophisticated models.
The Japanese have also built robots resembling snakes that can wrap around and grip objects. One is
soon to go to work for Tokyo’s fire department to rescue trapped people. Other robots have been built that
bear striking resemblances to Marilyn Monroe and other movie stars. And at a world technology fair in
Japan, visitors from all over the globe were startled to be greeted at the Hitachi exhibit by an oversized
electromechanical robot dog, accompanied by a smaller robot cat.
Tsukuba Science City, about 90 miles from Tokyo, is a center for Japan’s robotics research. This place
may eventually become the Silicon Valley of robots. At Tsukuba, science fiction is becoming reality as
scientists and engineers marry sophisticated computer and artificial intelligence to robots. They’ve even
produced android characters that dance together in a chorus line. Other machines are now being built in
Tsukuba to serve as robot nurses that can gently pick up infirm patients; still others will performconstruction work.
However, amidst all the excitement and commotion over the arrival of these wondrous creatures, a
growing number of Japanese resent the dawning of the Robotics Age. Unemployment has begun to rise in
Japan as more workers are laid off, replaced by robots. So far, not enough new jobs have been created to
take up the slack, but some economists say that the situation will be corrected as the robotics revolution
spreads and brings an era of technological wealth and affluence. Still, many Japanese worry about the
future. Whatever happens, it seems that Japan has become the experimental lab for the United States and
other technological nations. It is here that humankind may eventually discover if robots are a panacea, as
proponents claim... or a nemesis.
“Here’s the Way It Is, Mr. Congressman”
Caesar once said of a military operation, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” RoPet-HR and HERO could
justifiably make the same boast. These two articulate and well-groomed robots traveled to Washington,
D.C. and staked out their own claim to fame and conquest.
HERO made his triumphant visit to the nation’s capital on March 18, 1983, appearing before the Joint
Economic Committee. The committee was studying the impact of robotics and technology on employment
in the United States. For this subject, what better witness than a robot? HERO, a personal and educational
robot built by Heathkit Company, wowed the committee with his charm and his in-depth knowledge of the
economy. The senators crowded around the popular robot and shook hands, congratulating him on being
the first robot ever to speak before the U.S. Senate.
Then came RoPet-HR’s turn to show his stuff to the politicians. RoPet-HR is intelligent, possessing
speech, speech recognition, and a computer brain. He was so smart and so capable he won the first-place
ribbon in the Second Tournament of Robots held in Santa Ana, California. He was also adjudged “Best
Overall.” Therefore it was fitting that when the U.S. House of Representatives needed an expert witness
to testify about technology, RoPet HR was invited. RoPet-HR, a personal robot made and sold by
Personal Robotics Corporation of San Jose, California, thus became the first robot to appear before a
House Committee.
“Elect Me, Rebecca Robot, As Your President”
It was said to be a big deal in 1984 when Geraldine Ferraro was selected by the Democrat Party as its
nominee for Vice President of the United States. Maybe so, because Ms. Ferraro was the first woman ever
nominated to such a high position by a major political party. But what most of the news media missed was
another first that occurred during the same campaign: the nomination of the first female robot ever to run
for national office. Her name was (and is) Rebecca Robot, and the office she sought was the highest in the
land: that of the President of the United States.
Four women in Baltimore formed a political committee and convinced Rebecca to run. Actually, they
didn’t have to convince her because, according to Dee Snell-Wright, the spokesperson for the group,
“Rebecca has a mind of her own.” The spunky, four-foot tall robot is also mobile and has two arms that
swing with fervor. Admirers call her the “female Harry Truman.”
Rebecca formally registered as a candidate with the Federal Elections Commission, signing her “X” on
the designated form. When questioned by reporters about their unusual nominee, Rebecca’s supporters
pointed out that their candidate was assembled in the United States and thus met the constitutional
requirement that the president be born in the U.S.A.
Neatly attired in a silver satin suit with a pink bow, Rebecca gave a rousing kick-off speech to her
excited supporters, declaring that, as president, she would push for laws extending full civil rights to
robots.
“Rebecca’s efforts,” said Sylvia Beall, one of the robot’s most avid supporters, “should help robots get
the attention they deserve, and also boost U.S. technology efforts.”
Death By Robot
One of the most worrisome problems in the field of robotics is how to guarantee the safety of humans who
work alongside robots. A number of workers have been injured by them and at least five people have
been killed.
The first reported case of a man killed by a robot is undoubtedly the most bizarre. It is also the only
known case of a person killed by a show, or demonstration, robot. As recorded in the book, Are
Computers Alive?, by Geoff Simons, the tragic event occurred in 1931 at the Chicago World’s Fair.
Roland Schaeffer was the exhibitor of an artificial man, a lifelike android that could hammer nails, saw
wood pieces, and transport tools around the laboratory exhibit. After the exhibit hall had closed for the
night, Schaeffer stayed behind to look at some drawings. While his attention was evidently focused
elsewhere, the robot-carpenter suddenly came to life and went berserk, attacking and killing Schaeffer
with an iron club. Then the robot proceeded to smash and destroy the entire exhibit.
The second case, in 1946, was that of a Milwaukee engineer who was killed while adjusting the arm of
a robot. The machine was a huge, heavy model containing more than 200 electric switches. Apparently the
robot’s structure was unstable and the mechanism collapsed. The man was crushed under the weight of the
monstrosity.
The next case occurred at an automobile plant in Michigan in 1979. A worker who tended and
monitored industrial robots went to check on one that was malfunctioning. As he leaned over a railing to
inspect it, a robot unexpectedly struck him on the head. He was found later by a co-worker, dead of the
injury. In a suit, the worker’s survivors were awarded damages when a court ruled that the robot’s
manufacturer had not installed sufficient safety measures, though that firm denied responsibility.
Case number four was that of a worker at a plant in Akashi, Japan. He, too, was killed by an industrial
robot.
Then, in Michigan in July 1984, a 34-year-old man was hit and killed by a robot arm that was used to
move products from one production step to another.
The danger to humans who work around robots is a serious concern to companies that employ the
machines, and several safeguards are in place to try to prevent injury. For example, some robots sound a
beeper when they move their arm. Some others shut off automatically when something, such as a worker,
unexpectedly bumps or touches them. In Japan, at Yamazaki Machinery’s Minokamo plant, robots play
jazz music 21-hours a day to warn employees of the approach of their mechanical co workers. In many
plants, a wire cage fence or a railing encloses a robot’s work area.
Weighed against the minor likelihood of human injury is the fact that robots are actually saving untold
numbers of lives each year by performing work under hazardous conditions. Indeed, Vern Estes, a
robotics expert with General Electric, says that the best way for a company to find potential robot
applications in a factory is to ask the company doctor or nurse where physical injuries are occurring.
Those are the areas where robots should be substituted for flesh and blood workers in order to prevent
injury.
In the specific instances cited above, where workers were killed by arm robots, industry safety
specialists point out that as many as two hundred lives are saved each year by such robots under similar
conditions. Before robots came onto the scene, workers in those settings were liable to injury from falling
crates and other heavy items—items now handled with ease by the machines.
New, technologically advanced robots are preventing death and injury in many industries. For example,
a recently developed snakelike robot that can crawl inside gas and oil pipelines will save the lives of as
many as one hundred and fifty workers who annually have lost their lives when they’ve succumbed to gas
fumes. Robots are also being used at nuclear plants where humans might otherwise fall victim to radiation
exposure. These are by no means the only circumstances in which robots will in the coming years save the
lives of human workers and prevent maiming and injury.
FBI Investigates Einstein Robot
Albert Einstein was a genius, one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, and his theory of relativity is
the basis for today’s accepted ideas about time and space. But did you know that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation once investigated accusations that the distinguished Einstein was really a mad scientist who
planned to use a mind control robot to take over the world?
By the 1950s, Einstein’s achievements had received so much publicity that some people thought he was
capable of almost anything. The FBI began to receive reports that Einstein was a communist spy, that he
was plotting to take over Hollywood, and that he had been the mastermind behind the 1932 kidnapping of
the Lindbergh baby. The most incredible report, however, was that Einstein had secretly invented a
menacing, mind control robot.
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, had his agents conduct a lengthy and complete investigation of
these charges, wasting a lot of the taxpayers’ money in the process. A 1,500-page dossier was compiled
on the scientist, but no evidence was ever uncovered proving that a single one of the allegations against
Einstein was true. And the mind control robot? Well, there are some who still claim that it exists. They
say that it must be hidden away somewhere, perhaps deep in the crevice of an abandoned mine or at the
bottom of a cave, patiently awaiting the opportunity to surface and carry out its evil deeds. But, says the
FBI, not a screw or a bolt, nor even a wire, has ever been found to indicate that the robot exists.
Comments an FBI spokesman, “Some people believe the earth is flat, others believe in Einstein’s mind
control robot.”
Reversing Roles
In his typically wise and humorous, tongue-in-cheek manner, nationally syndicated columnist Art
Buchwald (now deceased) wrote the following column about robots in education. It is reprinted with
permission of the author.
Let the robots do the studies and
let students do the athletics
Washington—When Gibbs first brought up the subject I thought he was kidding. But he was dead
serious. “I have the answer to our education problem,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“We replace students with robots in our schools.”
“Robots?”
“I got the idea from watching a TV program on robots replacing people in blue collar jobs. The
robots’ productivity was much higher than the human workers, and companies were saving millions
in Social Security, medical benefits and pensions. It predicted that eventually, every factory in
America would be robotized.”
“How do you apply the principle to schools?”
“Statistics show educational standards are getting lower and lower. Students can’t read or write and
are getting dumber and dumber. So if they can’t cut it, we’ll enroll robots in their place.”
“What would you teach the robots?”
“Artificial intelligence. We’ll teach them the skills they need to replace the manpower this country so
desperately needs.”
He pulled out a blueprint. “Look, I’ve designed the perfect robot student. It doesn’t watch television,
listen to rock music, smoke grass, drink, and it never asks for a car when it becomes 16-years old.
I’ve programmed it to do all its homework, and also keep its room clean.”
“It looks pretty good,” I admitted.
“How does it do in math?”
“It can solve a math problem a million times faster than any human student. It has a built-in
dictionary so it can’t misspell a word, and a chip which keeps it from making any grammatical
errors. With robots instead of live students, national test scores would go soaring, and we could
once again take pride in the American school system.”
“Do you think the school boards would go for enrolling robots?”
“Once they see what robots can do in the classroom, the board members would have no choice.
Robots don’t eat, so the school district would no longer have to underwrite cafeteria costs. Robots
don’t fight, so they would no longer have a security problem. And robots can’t get pregnant, so they
won’t need student counselors. But the big saving would be, since robots all look alike, you
wouldn’t have to bus them 20 miles from their home.”
“Would you have live teachers instructing the robots?”
“At the beginning. But the beauty of robots is that you can teach them to teach other robots. Once you
program them as ‘Master Robots,’ all a school would need is one systems manager to monitor what
was going on in the classrooms. When they see the savings that could be made in running a school, a
board would be out of its mind not to replace young people with a robot student body.”
“Adults would go for it if it meant lowering real estate taxes,” I admitted. “What about athletics at
the school? I can’t see people coming out on Friday night to see robots playing football.”
“I’ve thought about that. Each school would still maintain enough human students to maintain an
excellent athletic program. Since the kids won’t be able to compete intellectually with robots in the
classroom, they could spend all their time on the practice field and we’ll produce quality athletes,
the likes of which this country has never seen.”
“What do you do with the millions of live students who are not athletes?”
“They’ll have to be retrained to do something else. It’s a waste of money to try to educate them if
robots are going to take all their jobs when the kids get out of school.” © Los Angeles Times
Syndicate
Chapter 8
Robots in Science Fiction and Movies
“Anything one man can imagine other men can make real.”
—Jules Verne
Robots have long been a wildly popular subject in science fiction books, pulp magazines, and films.
The “machine human” has provided inspiration for so many talented writers, editors, and producers that
we cannot give them all justice in the brief space available here. Their number include author Isaac
Asimov, a living legend to science fiction fans; George Lucas, the man responsible for the fantastic robots
of the Star Wars saga; Edmond Hamilton, who gave the world the Captain Future series; Clifford D.
Simak, winner of two coveted Hugo awards; and editors Hugo Gernsback and Jack Campbell, whose
science fiction magazines several decades ago thrilled millions of readers.
The Robot Fantasy Begins
The first true literary robot was a clockwork robot woman named Olympia in an 1816 novel, The
Sandman, by German author E.T.A. Hoffman. Olympia was so lovely and feminine she made men’s hearts
flutter, but she was, in the end, only a mechanical wonder. The story becomes ominous when robot
Olympia dances a young beau nearly to his death before she can be turned off.
French authors spawned several popular robot tales later in the nineteenth century. One, The Future
Eve (1886), by Villiers de ’Isle-Adam, told of a marvelous android named Hadaly. According to the
novel, the beautiful Hadaly was given life by electricity in the lab of Thomas Edison. She had a soul and a
remarkable spirit, but was not too well endowed in her brain circuits. Nevertheless, her fictional creator
boasted, “My master, Edison, will soon teach you that electricity is as powerful as God.”
Other early robot science fiction efforts include the works of Samuel Butler and Herman Melville,
discussed in a previous chapter, and literary efforts by innovative British authors.
At the turn of the twentieth century, The London Magazine carried many of their stories, including
vivid tales of electric insects and giant monsters who were half-fish, half-paddle boat.
The Fabulous Robots of Science Fiction Pulps
The robot became a principal attraction for readers of science fiction magazines in the 1930s and 1940s,
as story after story captured the public’s fancy. Among the periodicals that carried exciting, mindabsorbing tales of robots and androids were Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Astounding Science
Fiction, Wonder Stories, and Fantasy-Thrilling Science Fiction.
On the pages of these and other sci-fi pulps you will find the bylines of such worldclass authors as
Isaac Asimov, Clifford Simak, Ray Cummings, Lester del Rey, Stanley Weinbaum, Eando Binder, E. E.
Smith, and Jack Williamson. Their work was greatly influenced by editors such as John W. Campbell,
who took over Astounding Stories in 1937 and made it the top magazine in the field for more than three
decades, and by Hugo Gernsback, who coined the term “science fiction.” That era has been called the
“Golden Age of Science Fiction,” and robot characters and their creators were in large part responsible
for its glitter.
Many of those early science fiction stories depicted the robot as lovable, intelligent, thoughtful… even
heroic. It was only after our confrontation with the truly demonic in World War II and the advent of the
Atomic Age that worries about technology and progress translated into stories of alien- and human-made
robots bent on destruction.
The Adventures of Adam Link
The heroic android Adam Link was the brainchild of brothers Earl and Otto Binder, who jointly wrote
under the name “Eando Binder.” The Binders portrayed their creation as courageous, possessed of vast
intelligence and also imbued with deep human emotion. The latter trait was much in evidence in the 1940
story, “Adam Link, Robot Detective;” here we find a sentimental and touching episode when Adam finds
Eve, his robot soulmate, dead:
Grief overcame me, an emotion as real and deep as any you humans have… It had begun to rain.
Kneeling beside her, I removed my top skull-plate. The rain, pouring into my sensitive, iridiumsponge brain, would short-circuit my life current. I would join Eve in blessed non-existence.
“Adam! Adam Link!” Jack hissed.
But I heard no more. A hiss sounded from within me, as the water touched on a live wire. Smoke
curled up from my exposed metal brain. Adam and Eve, the first of intelligent robot life, were
leaving the world not meant for them.
Adam Link’s Eve was no beauty, at least in human eyes. For one thing, the huge metallic woman was
eight-feet tall! But her Adam was the beholder, and to him she was sheer loveliness.
In 1938, author Lester del Rey gave evidence that humans would one-day find robots beautiful. The
praises of his creation, Helen O’Loy, are sung in the story’s first-person account of her arrival:
I am an old man now, and I can still see Helen as Dave unpacked her, and still hear him gasp as he
looked her over.
“Man, isn’t she a beauty?”
She was beautiful, a dream in spun plastics and metals, something Keats might have seen dimly when
he wrote his sonnet…
A Better Breed: Asimov’s Contributions
Lester del Rey’s “Helen O’Loy” was a loving, loyal wife to her human owner. She stuck by him until his
biologically inferior body gave out, then she committed roboticide so they could continue to be together in
death as in life. According to the author, Helen was better than her human counterparts, a sort of superwoman. Isaac Asimov’s robots were also better:
To you a robot is a robot. Gears and metal; electricity and positrons—mind and iron! Human-made!
If necessary, human destroyed. But you haven’t worked with them, so you don’t know them. They’re
a better, cleaner breed than we are. —statement by Dr. Susan Calvin, robot psychologist, in a news
interview, A.D. 2057 (I, ROBOT, 1950)
Asimov can be credited with making robots as popular as they are today. In the 1940s his robot science
fiction stories in pulp magazines were a staple for hundreds of thousands. His frequent theme was that
robots are not to be feared, but welcomed by humanity.
As we’ve seen, this wasn’t a new concept. However, in the years immediately after the 1945 atomic
bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the outcome of advancing technology was an open question.
Many science fiction authors had begun to paint a bleak picture of the robot future, so Asimov’s more
positive outlook put things back in balance and restored perspective.
A great contribution of Asimov’s was his codification of the laws of robotics regarding robot human
interaction and responsibility. In I, ROBOT, the author set forth three rigid and unchanging rules for robot
behavior. Incorporated in the Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, A.D. 2058, they are as follows:
Three Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict
with the First Law.
3. A Robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the
First or Second Law.
Isaac Asimov continued to be a strong voice in robotics fiction through the ’50s with such novels as
The Caves of Steel (1954) and The Naked Sun (1957), both of which featured a robot detective, Elijah
Bailey, and his some-time partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, a “near human” robot. In 1983 another Asimov
novel, Robots of Dawn, recounted the further adventures of Bailey. This third tale was most inventive,
casting the detective in a plot in which his task is to seek out a murderer—whose victim is a sophisticated
robot.
Technology Gone Mad
One particularly chilling story of the fruits of technology turning bittersweet was Jack Williamson’s “With
Folded Hands.” In this 1953 tale Williamson cleverly demonstrated that the fine principles of Asimov’s
Three Laws of Robotics can be overdone.
As the story unfolds, we are given a picture of a future world in which supposedly perfect humanoids
have been programmed to follow what is called the Prime Directive—“to serve, and guard men fromharm.” Unfortunately, the plan turns into disaster when the humanoids start implementing the Prime
Directive too literally.
“You Will Be Happy, Sir”
The robots insist that virtually all activities are too dangerous for humans. In effect, the humans become
pampered prisoners in a highly efficient, nightmarish jail of their own making. Purpose and hope die,
replaced by a sense of utter futility. The robots go so far as to tranquilize or surgically alter the minds of
those who cannot accept the new way of life, thereby insuring that everyone is happy.
“You will be happy, sir,” the mechanical promised him. “We have learned how to make all men
happy under the Prime Directive. Our service is perfect at last…”
“No, there’s nothing the matter with me,” the man gasped desperately. “I’ve just found out I’mperfectly happy…” His voice became dry and hoarse and wild. “You won’t have to operate on me
now…”
His futile hands, clenched and relaxed again, folded on his knees. There was nothing left to do.
Robot Science Fiction Today
Asimov isn’t the only creator of imaginative science fiction tales about robots. The number of new robot
stories and books is far fewer than in decades past, but there’s evidence of a great popular revival of
interest in the genre.
One of today’s most widely acclaimed writers of such science fiction novels is Stanislaw Lem, a Pole
whose work has been published in many languages. In The Cyberiad, he weaves fables that are both
exciting and humorous. In one of his pieces, two wonderfully crazy robot inventors create fantastic
machines that tickle our imagination. One invented device, for example, has the marvelous ability to
create on command anything that begins with the letter, “n.”
Now deceased, Philip K. Dick (1928-82) was a writer whose books and stories are still read by avid
robot fans. More than six decades ago in Galaxy magazine, Dick’s “The Defenders,” was published, a
saga of the human race living underground while their robots were left to battle overhead in a mighty
world war. The most thought-provoking part of the story was in the fact that as soon as the humans had
withdrawn into their isolated shelters, the sensible robots declared a peace. However, the robots
fabricated evidence—films and the like—to keep the humans believing that the dreadful war continued. [sounds like to wag the dog dc]
Dick is perhaps best remembered for his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was
made into a movie, Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. Another of his well-received books was the
provocative, We Can Make You, which told of the manufacture of celebrity replicas. The cover art of the
DAW Books paperback depicts an eye-catching Abe Lincoln robot replica with blank eyes and
sophisticated circuitry in its torso.
D. F. Jones, who wrote Colossus, The Fall of Colossus, and Colossus and the Crab certainly deserves
mention. His books told of Charles Corbin, a scientist in charge of constructing the world’s most powerful
“colossus” computer. The computer turns out to have a mind of its own, however, and decides to become
man’s ruler. Jones’s works were made into an excellent movie in 1970 called Colossus—The Forbin
Project.
A 1981 novel by Tanith Lee, The Silver Metal Lover, covered ground that has been trod before namely,
romance between robots and humans. However, Lee’s writing style brings a new dimension to this
familiar topic. Her story, set in the future, is about a male robot named Silver. He is an auburn-haired,
silver-skinned fellow who plays the guitar. His sensitivity and intelligence capture the heart of a young
woman who, unfortunately, violates the moral and social code of her day by consorting with a machine person.
The following excerpt from Lee’s book conveys its theme:
“Mother, I am in love.”
“Are you, darling?”
“Oh, yes, Mother, I am.”
“With whom, dear?”
“His name is Silver.”
“How metallic!”
“Yes. It stands for Silver Ionized Locomotive Versimulated Electronic Robot.”
Silence. Silence. Silence.
“Mother…”
John Sladek, a modern-day British author of The Steam Driven Boy and other works, takes the story of
historical robots and humorously brings them up-to-date. His 1985 title, Tik-Tok (after the Oz robot
character), is a satiric story of the antic adventures of a robot who has a malfunction in his “Asimov
circuits” and is no longer obeying the Three Laws of Robotics, promulgated to prevent robots doing harm to humans. Tik-Tok leaves a trail of corpses as he makes his way to high political office in the United
States.
Danish author Niels E. Nielsen’s 1970 novel, The Rulers, took up a more sympathetic theme: the civil
and “human” rights of robots. Nielsen’s androids demand their rights from their masters and, when
refused, go to war in that cause. The wartime conduct of the human race is abominable; they, after all,
consider the robots to be mere machines.
Here are more recent entries in robotic or artificial intelligence science fiction:
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
The Alchemy of Stone, by Ekaterina Sedia
Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge
War With the Robots, by Harry Harrison
The Ware Tetralogy, by Rudy Rucker
He, She, It, by Marge Piercy
Virtual Girl, by Amy Thomson
The Night Sessions, by Ken MacLeod
Saturn’s Children, by Charles Stross
As writers such as Jones, Sladek, Lee, and others prove, the golden age of robotics in science fiction
has a more than rosy afterglow. Indeed, we may be on the very dawn of an upswing in robot fiction as
new personal and worker robots endowed with artificial intelligence and unheralded physical
capabilities inspire a new generation of writers to imagine and contemplate alternative worlds.
Cinematic Machine Dreams
Producers and directors of movies and television shows have carried on their own sort of love affair with
robots. One of the most powerful films ever made during the silent film era was Metropolis (1926) and
there’s not been a decade since that hasn’t engendered many such movies.
The classic Metropolis, directed by a German, Fritz Lang, presents an image of a futuristic world in
which humanity is firmly split into two classes: the industrialists/owner elite and the downtrodden mass
of workers. The beautiful Maria is the leader-heroine of the workers, and an evil scientist, Rotwang,
builds a robot that physically duplicates her. The industrialists’ plan is to use the robot to inspire the
workers to revolt prematurely, giving the state an excuse for harsh repression. Ultimately, their plan fails.
Friendly and Heroic Robots
Just as in literary science fiction, the cinema has alternately depicted the robot as both threat and as
faithful servant.
Movies that portray robots in a favorable light include the two classics, Forbidden Planet (1956) and
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1957). In Forbidden Planet, Robbie the robot is a wonderful companion
to his human masters. He is the prototype of the mechanical household keeper we all long for: a machine
that can clean, sew, and cook. Robbie can even manufacture products. Just show him a sample and he’ll
make you an exact duplicate. Naturally, Robbie speaks; he’s cheerful and sometimes very amusing.
In the award-winning The Day the Earth Stood Still, the three central characters are actor Michael
Rennie, actress Patricia Neal, and the robot, Gort. Gort comes from outer space, but his mission to Earth
is laudable. He rounds up all the world’s leaders and solemnly announces that, unless they stop warring
on each other and establish a permanent system of international peace, he, Gort, will completely destroy
the planet. Gort, then, is a true hero—an interplanetary peacekeeper programmed to blackmail the
universe—and specifically the factious Earthlings—into doing what they should do on their own.
The Star Wars Saga
The fabulously popular robots R2D2 and C-3PO of Star Wars (1977) and its sequels, The Empire Strikes
Back and Return of the Jedi, are the perfect archetypes of the loyal, helper robot. These two androids,
one shaped like a trashcan, the other resembling a small, metallic gold man, assist human hero Luke
Skywalker as he battles a corrupt galactic empire bent on ruling the universe.
Director George Lucas’s Star Wars trilogy gives us images of many other animated machines, as well.
In one scene, a motley collection of used robots is sold much as we now handle transactions for used
cars.
Another movie, Android (1982), won critical acclaim, but its commercial appeal didn’t approach that
of Star Wars. Directed by Aaron Lipstadt for Show Films, Ltd., (an Island Alive release), Android may
well become a robophile screen classic. In this imaginative picture, Don Opper plays the lead as Max
404, an android created aboard a space station by a cruel and insensitive scientist, Dr. Daniel (Klaus
Kinski). Max 404 is an innocent who becomes a great fan of Earth artifacts and culture, including bluejeans and film legends like Jimmy Stewart and Humphrey Bogart, whom he tries to imitate in dress and
manner.
Soon, Max 404 is joined by a female android, Cassandra, played by Kendra Kirchner. Meanwhile, a
murderer threatens the androids and Max 404 and Cassandra also become aware of the evil designs of Dr.
Daniel. All’s well in the end, however, as both the scientist and the murderer are destroyed, leaving the
two androids free to assume human identities and live happily ever after.
The Robot Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out
Just as they frequently are portrayed in print, some cinematic robots take up roles as compliant tools of
galactic bad men, as rebellious servants, and as malfunctioning creatures who run amok.
Most of the films that characterize robots as threats are movies. These include Gog, Gog the Killer,
and a thirteen-segment Republic Films serial called, The Vanishing Shadow. Only a few pictures
featuring bad guy robots have won acclaim or recognition as quality productions of enduring value.
Probably best known among the films featuring laboratory-created life forms are many versions of
Frankenstein flicks. Over the years, viewers have delighted in or suffered through (depending on one’s
perspective) such films as The Bride of Frankenstein, Curse of Frankenstein, I Was a Teenage
Frankenstein, and Frankenstein Meets the Werewolf. Finally, in 1969, these films gave way to satire as
an East German comedy, Hollow My Weenie, Frankenstein made its appearance. It was followed by Mel
Brooks’s very funny spoof of the entire Frankenstein genre, Young Frankenstein, which starred Gene
Wilder and Madelyn Kahn.
And More Robot Films for You
We can’t list them all, of course, but here’s a glimpse through the keyhole at some of the members in good standing whose celluloid images populate the Robot Hall of Fame (or Infamy, take your pick!).
Phantom Empire (1936). Singing cowboy hero Gene Autry is on the side of law and order in this
depression-era, silver screen production. The outlaws have robots on their side. Guess who emerges the
victor in the ensuing drama?
Satan’s Satellites (1951). The evil robots in this film serve aliens from outer space. But Commander
Cody comes fearlessly to the rescue.
Robot Monster (1958). This movie is said to be one of the silliest and most improbable ever produced.
Its plot, which includes robots who wear gorilla suits and who come out of the ocean to attack women
sunbathers, may just earn a cult following for this campy film.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). HAL is the computer brain of the robot spaceship in this Stanley
Kubrick recreation of the best-selling book by Englishman Arthur C. Clarke. HAL is programmed to be
logical—too logical. To insure the success of the mission, he methodically destroys the human beings
aboard the spaceship. However, in the sequel, 2010, HAL redeems himself by self-sacrifice.
The Stepford Wives (1974). Perfect simulations of housewives are built. They murder their real life
models and become obedient, traditional wives to macho men.
Demon Seed (1977). In this MGM production, beautiful Julie Christie plays a woman who is enslaved
and impregnated by a terrifying, machine-like robot who knows the meaning of lust.
The Black Hole (1979). The proverbial mad scientist, in this case a Dr. Durant, uses hulking
mechanistic robots to accomplish his diabolical plans.
Robots on Television
TV productions with robots in the cast include two British series: the long-running “Dr. Who” and “The
Avengers.” “Dr. Who,” also shown in America, features robot dog “K-9,” and the evil Dalek race of
machine creatures.
“Riptide,” a popular NBC detective series by Stephen Cannell Productions, displayed a strange
looking but friendly mobile robot named Roboz. Murray Bozinsky, the show’s resident computer hacker,
affectionately called the robot that “squat, ugly, orange thing!” The mute Roboz did not have many
capabilities, but he added a touch of high tech class to the show.
Three other TV series with robots and near-robots are the revived “The Jetsons,” the continuing story
of a twenty-first-century family, their dog, Astro, and robot maid, Rosie; “Small Wonder,” a syndicated
situation comedy about a cute little bionic girl who’s adopted by a typical family; and “Automan,” a
fantasy about an animated hero created out of thin air by a computer.
Most robots appearing on television have been at least benign, the exceptions being evil robots who
appeared in a few of the “Star Trek,” and “Battlestar Galactica” episodes. The “My Living Doll” series
(1964) starred a likeable female robot as did the 1976 series “Holmes and YoYo.” In “Lost in Space,” a
very popular mid-’60s adventure about stranded space travelers, the unnamed robot was a brainy,
sensitive, and kind mechanical android who constantly kept the bumbling, insensitive—but laughable—Dr. Smith on the straight-and-narrow.
In the 1980s “Knight Rider,” a principal character is a robotic automobile named K.I.T.T. The vehicle
is packed with electronic gadgetry and endowed with a pleasant voice. In the series, K.I.T.T. and a human
companion battle an assortment of seedy criminals.
Mere Dreams No Longer
As one reads of robots in early science fiction novels and pulp magazines, and as we view gripping
action adventures of robots in past movies, a stunning realization takes hold. Modern technology and
science have in many cases outstripped past fantasies; many of the dreams of science fiction prose have
become reality. It appears that the boldest and most imaginative of robot tales—even some of those that
have appeared the most improbable—may yet come to pass.
The robot breed’s evolutionary process is gathering momentum as we move swiftly into the twenty-first
century. Already we have put robots in space, and—shades of Frankenstein!—organ transplants have
become commonplace. We have robots in our homes that talk and walk and robots in our factories that can
work faster and with more precision and endurance than human workers. Science fiction has become
science fact.
How we have arrived at this juncture is the subject matter of the next chapter. But first, let’s take a fun
journey down memory lane as we review the Golden Age of robots and androids in science fiction. These
pictures are only a few of the countless magazine covers we have encountered, each of which provides an
imaginative look at our future.
next- 175s
Robots: Be Part of the Beginning
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