2014; 345 pages. Full Title : Robots Like Blue – Freedom Has A Price. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Science Fiction; Visionary. Overall Rating : 7*/10.
It’s
the 22nd century, and robots are just starting to be household
items. The major marketer of these is
Enorpa Robotics, and while there’s nothing wrong with their robots, they nevertheless lack a
certain je ne sais quoi.
Harrowgate & Webster Robotics is the newcomer to the field, and
their aim is to take some of the market-share away from Enorpa. They may be lacking in resources and
cash-flow, but what they have going for them (they hope) is vastly superior robot programming. Their machines are programmed to respond in a
more humanlike manner to questions and commands, and their programs will
evaluate, and self-modify, based on the
interaction with humans. Harrowgate
& Webster are counting on the customers liking this “warmth”.
The first prototypes of H&W’s new Gen-5 line of robots have just
been shipped on a trial basis, and Lucy Walker is one of the few select
recipients. She is recently widowed, with
two small kids, so having a machine to help with the chores is a godsend. Lucy’s kids quickly dub the new robot
“Robbie”, and the reader gets to follow Robbie as he learns the mystifying and
complicated ways of humans. It seems
likely that, once the trial period is over, Lucy will sign a contract and
purchase Robbie on a permanent basis.
Just be sure you read the small print in that contract, Lucy. You never know what rights you’ve just given
away.
What’s To Like...
The
primary theme of Robots Like Blue, at least
for the first half of the book, is: Can a robot ever become human? This is a surprisingly tricky question, since
it must first be determined what makes something human. H. Beam Piper explored this in Little Fuzzy (reviewed here), albeit in terms
of “When is a
species sufficiently sentient to where we communicate with them instead of
killing/eating them?” And
Peter Cave offers a lighthearted overview in his excellent book: Can A Robot Be Human (reviewed here).
Anthony
J. Deeney gives a realistic take on the subject; you’ll find no I, Robot or Terminator nightmare here. But you will see the Turing
Test being applied, meet Schrodinger’s cat, and find that Robbie has
synesthesia.
The writing is straightforward, but not weak. Some robots get recycled, and you may feel a
tinge of remorse when this happens. There
are some chuckles when Robbie takes some human phrases literally, and I really
wished there’d been more of these. The
book is written in “British”, which I always like.
There’s not a lot of world-building, given that the story is set in
England a century in the future. But I
think that was just a literary device to set the premise for household
robots. The ending felt rushed, didn’t
resolve all the issues, and left most of the characters in the lurch. This might be to set up a sequel, but it any
case it felt quite anti-climactic.
Excerpts...
“Robot, are you
self aware?”
Robot spent
several milliseconds considering the question and then said, “Does it matter?”
Barbara
responded. “It seemed to matter to our
owners, Claire and Leo. They said that
it would trouble them if I was self aware and had the status of a slave. Do you think that we are self aware?”
“Have you asked
the Alpha?”
“He said the
question was ‘human’, and has no meaning for us. He said it was not dissimilar to asking if we
like the colour blue.” (loc.
1173)
“Ms Lydon, I
recognise that in your experience as a counsellor, your argument would appear
to carry some weight.”
He looked up from
his notes and smiled.
Claire smiled
back, “Thank you, I have been a
counsellor for fifteen years.”
“You will, of
course, be aware of the theory of Solipsism.”
“Yes, I am. Solipsism, the idea that only one’s own mind
is sure to exist. It is, of course,
nonsense! One wonders why a solipsist
would bother trying to persuade other, possibly non-existent, entities that
they possibly don’t exist.” (loc.
3688)
Kindle Details...
Robots Like Blue currently sells
for $2.99 at Amazon, although I’ve seen it offered for free a couple times
already. ANAICT, this is Anthony J.
Deeney’s only e-book available thus far.
“What if your creator is evil?
Would it be ‘wrong’ to defy him then?” (loc. 5181)
The
first half of Robots Like Blue was great,
but then it seemed to lose its focus, and the overriding issue of “can a robot can
be self-aware” gave way to “do humans have souls”. There was a lot more telling than showing in
the second half, including two cases of extended banter – one in the courtroom,
the other in a bar.
The dialogues also took on an air of preachiness, touching on subjects
like original sin and fallen angels. It
didn’t get overbearing, but it did distract from the basic theme of robots and
their inner nature. It would’ve been
better to tie up more of the storyline threads and stay on topic.
Still, RLB was a worthwhile read, and
it was nice to see a plausible look at how robots might be utilized in another
hundred years or so.
7 Stars. Add 1 star
if it doesn’t bother you that a book’s theme shifts right in the middle of its
storyline.
