I, For One, Welcome Our Robot Overlords (Part 1)

2 Comments

1. Bill from PA says:

   July 28, 2011 at 8:33 am

   A robot which predates both Tik-Tok and Capek is the title character of Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s 1886 novel L’Ève future, which anticipates by more than 50 years Del Rey’s  “Helen O’Loy”. In the novel the mechanical woman is an invention of Thomas Edison, intended as a substitute for a friend’s beautiful but vapid fiancée.

   I hope you will mention John Sladek’s Roderick in the second installment. This is an underappreciated book which meditates on the nature of robots at the same time as being a very funny novel in the great picaresque tradition of Fielding and Smollett.

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2. John D. says:

   July 28, 2011 at 10:41 am

   Hi Bill,

   Yep — I was aware that Tik-Tok wasn’t the first, which is why I was careful to say “one the most memorable…”

   And: I do indeed mention Roderick, though briefly, in Part 2. Stay tuned!

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