Scientific Liberties

from the master of the sexy robots

 I've been investigating old science fiction stories about robots by Daniel Keyes such as his 1952 stories "Robot---Unwanted" and "Precedent". As discussed in my previous blog post, Keyes imagined having the means to make a humanoid robot experience feelings of hatred and love. Here in this blog post I'll comment on his 1963 story "A Jury of Its Peers" which concerns the fate of a computer that can think.

One aspect of Isaac Asimov's robot stories that never resonated with me was his emphasis on the idea that people would hate robots because they would take jobs away from people. I understand that Asimov lived through a period of high unemployment during the 1930s, but he continued to deploy anti-robot sentiments as plot elements in his robot stories even after the unemployment rate declined in the 1940s.

interior art for "A Jury of Its Peers"

And there was Keyes in 1963 with "A Jury of Its Peers" in which "humans thrown out of work by automation" has led to the New Jersey Law Against Computer Thought.

 Artificial Intelligence in the 1960s. Published in January of 1963 was "Computers and Thought" by Edward Feigenbaum, a collection of articles about artificial intelligence by people such as Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, Arthur  Samuel and Alan Turing. Writing in 1950, Turing guessed that with continued advancement in computing equipment, by the year 2000, nobody would feel uncomfortable saying that computers could produce human-like behavior. 

mechanical pin-setting

 Thinking Machine. However, the power of computerized automation has so far not required that computers actually think. As an example from 1963, human bowling pin setters were easily replaced by machines. And should anyone really lament the situation when a machine can take over a mindless task? Really, people have better things to be doing than setting up bowling pins.

the defense

"A Jury of Its Peers" seems like a joke story, designed to mock the absurdities of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Building on the success of his 1959 story "Flowers for Algernon" (that story won a Hugo), Keyes was able to get a job teaching at at Wayne State University in 1962. "A Jury of Its Peers" features a university physics professor who is getting help with his teaching duties from an intelligent computer that he built. 

Figure 1. Still a mystery.

The thoughtful computer (who goes by the name "Compo") is dangerous to have around because in New Jersey there is a law against teaching students that computers can think.

 Magic. So, how do you make a thinking computer? Here, Keyes does the same thing that Asimov did when explaining the origin of telepathic robots (see Figure 1). 😞 According to Keyes, some unknown, "random" change to a computer's circuits can magically create a thinking computer.

Are there computers in heaven?

"A Jury of Its Peers" includes a scene in which Compo the thinking computer is called to testify during the court hearing. Compo is expected to swear on a Bible that he will tell the truth, but Compo is just a box of circuits. However, Compo can speak and he assures everyone that he believes in the same God as do humans. In the end, Compo becomes a professor at a progressive university in a pro-automation state.

cover art by Ed Emshwiller

I re-read "Flowers for Algernon" as it was originally published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I remember reading the story about 50 years ago in an anthology, long before I even knew that pulp science fiction magazines existed. 

Now, having previously read "Cal" by Isaac Asimov, I must note that the start of that story seems to have been influenced by "Flowers for Algernon". In Asimov's story, it is a robot named Cal who narrates the story, not a man (Charlie, in "Flowers for Algernon"). At the beginning of "Cal",  Cal can barely write. At the start of "Flowers for Algernon", Charlie also has very bad writing skills. However, Cal gets "upgrades" to his robotic circuits and become a great writer. Charlie becomes part of an experiment and his intelligence is boosted, but the changes to his brain are only temporary, lasting just long enough for him to demonstrate (mathematically?) that his artificially boosted intelligence will soon fade away, just as was the case for the lab mouse Algernon.

image source

 More Magic. The main premise in "Flowers for Algernon" (that there is some simple operation on the brain that can boost intelligence) is silly enough, but Keyes went on to postulate that a sudden boost in intelligence would soon lead to cognitive decline and death. I've never read the longer novel version of the story. I certainly hope it does not have a rat inside a mans head as shown in the image to the left.

wait until the robots take you away

In the November 1960 issue of If was "The Quality of Mercy",  a story about a post-nuclear war era in which robots use advanced medical technology to keep a few human attendants alive. People are inflicted with NUCLEAR CANCER and have to under-go transplantation to replace bad body parts. There are continual efforts to liberate humanity from this system, but the robots always defeat the human rebels that want to change the system. Finally, the robots find a way to do without human attendants, removing all risk that any human rebels will ever get close enough to the master computer circuits to end their rule over Humanity.

resistance is futile

"The Quality of Mercy" reminds me of "With Folded Hands", a story about annoying robots that was written by Jack Williamson (1947). I'm tempted to put this kind of science fiction story into a special category: "anti-science fiction". It is amusing to see lamentations for The Forbin Project (a film from 1970) because other people "ripped off" its plot. I like to imagine that there can be progress in science fiction story telling by which one writer might get a plot idea and then later writers use that plot element to better and better effect as time goes on. 

strategies for keeping control of robots and computers in the Ekcolir Reality

image source

Sadly, there is also a relentless process by which a plot idea can be recycled and eventually it becomes deployed in a such a way that it has been dumbed down to the level of television.

 Time Travel. I began to wonder if all of Keyes' other stories (besides Flowers) were about artificial intelligence.  "Crazy Maro" in the April 1960 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a time travel story. Keyes asks readers to imagine a future time when time travel technology allows the people of that future to go into the past in search of unusual humans whose value is not recognized. 

Crazy Maro

 And Telepathy, Too. Crazy Maro is one such person, a man who has some sort of telepathic ability that is needed in the future. How do you recruit someone who is viewed as crazy to leave their world, their time, and travel into the future? You'll have to read "Crazy Maro" to find out.

Reading the stories of Keyes, I also began to wonder if he was capable of creating a story with a pleasant ending. Apparently Keyes had to fight with editors to be allowed to keep his sad ending in "Flowers for Algernon".

Crisis Management. "The Trouble with Elmo" which appeared in the August 1958 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, proves that Keyes could write a light-hearted story with a happy ending. In "The Trouble with Elmo", Elmo is a brilliant Electronic Monitor that is locked in a deadly battle with Senator Ferdus.

Figure 1. Ferdus, Busby and Elmo

 Space Aliens. Elmo finds solutions to Earth's problems, but those solutions always seem to lead to more new problems. Ferdus suspected that this endless chain of problems is Elmo's ways of ensuring that he will always be needed. Ferdus plans to destroy Elmo as soon as the day comes when there is no longer a looming crisis to be averted. Elmo has a fix for Earth's current crisis, but it involves trading Asia to the aliens of a distant exoplanet.

Interstellar Teleportation. Jake Busby is the one human who knows how to manage Elmo the Giant Brain™. Years ago, Busby was a master sergeant in a Computing Squad, but each time someone like Ferdus gets mad at Elmo, Busby loses another stripe. Now Busby has no more stripes left to lose so he hatches a desperate plan. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

Rather than allow the aliens to teleport away Asia, he instead sells himself and Elmo to the aliens. At the end of the story, Elmo and Busby are happily living on an exoplanet and they constitute the Universal Fixit Company, dedicated to fixing big problems anywhere in the galaxy. As usual, the fictional science of "The Trouble with Elmo" makes no sense. Why would super-advanced aliens who can teleport Asia across interstellar distances need a klunky computer (Figure 1) from Earth?

 In that same issue of Galaxy was "In Black and White" by J. T. McIntosh. An alien ergeron salesman arrives on Earth, but Earthlings are primitive and have not even reached the Moon, so they have no need for ergeron. Ergeron is the source of energy that is needed for interstellar space travel.

interior art by Martinez

However, the alien salesman provides Earthlings with a magic potion that cures all disease. This will cause the population of Earth to rapidly increase. Soon enough, trillions of Earthlings will be running out of living space on the planets of the Solar System and will pay big buck$ for ergeron.

In addition to having a technology for cellular regeneration, the aliens can transform their bodily form into the human form. The aliens don't like water; they never bathe and they stink. While on Earth, the salesman and his wife use the human body form and they learn to enjoy swimming. Also, not being very busy, the salesman plays lots of checkers. The technology transfer is not all one-way. Since the aliens don't wear clothing, they never invented the zipper.

cover art by Armand Cabrera

 Wither Waldo. It was with trepidation that I also read "To Marry Medusa" by Theodore Sturgeon. However, I started out in 2022 by reading Needle by Hal Clement (1949) which also features an alien arriving from outer space and entering into the body of a human, so why not see what Sturgeon could do with that concept? 

 Why Not. I've also tried to read Sturgeon's story "Killdozer" which was hard work for me. For that 1944 story, readers are asked to imagine a magic spirit that can enter into a bulldozer and animate it.  For "To Marry Medusa" we are asked to accept the idea that an alien "spore" could travel across interstellar space, fall from outer space, enter into a man's body and then Humanity would be absorbed into the vast trans-galactic group mind of the titular alien Medusa. Sure, why not, particularly when the story starts with the ravings of a drunk named Gurlick.

excerpt from "To Marry Medusa"

 Lipstick on a Medusa. The alien "spore" (looking like a "boiled raisin") was bouncing around Earth for a while, being eaten by birds and then a horse before getting inside of Gurlick.

And since this is Sturgeon and the drunk killing a dog is not disgusting enough, readers are quickly thrown into a chemically-facilitated date-rape scene. This is the point where I generally turn off the sickening television program and go do something more sensible. So why read anything written by Sturgeon?

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Whither Gurlick. I have nobody to blame but myself. I'm fascinated by the idea that some type of artificial lifeform with nanoscopic components might be able to take up residence inside an animal's body. So, what is going to happen to poor Gurlick?     But first....

 More Medusa. My first exposure to a Medusa was at the age of 12 in the Star Trek episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?". I despised that episode because it featured an "energy being" (an alien Medusan) that caused people to lose their minds. 

 Psychoscience. Long before Sturgeon's 1958 "To Marry Medusa" he also published "Medusa" in the February 1942 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. In "Medusa", Sturgeon introduced readers to old Doc Renn, the "greatest name in psychoscience". Renn and his fellow medicos on the Psycho Board have crafted a spaceship crew of men with dual personalities.

Figure 2. The secret of interstellar travel.

 Horny Fireater. Assistant astromechanic Harl Ripley (just call him "Rip") is told that he is the only crewman who is not insane. Rip is okay with this because he knows Captain Parks who is a "horny old fireater". And just in case readers are puzzled about how spaceships can zip across vast interstellar distances, Sturgeon explained that (see Figure 2).

interior art for "Medusa"

 Spherical Slide Rule #827. Don't worry that you need your spherical slide rule; Sturgeon's futuristic interstellar spaceship is just like a sea-going ship of the year 1940, including a quartermaster named Seabiscuit. We are off to Xantippie, which has an orbit like a comet but it is a gigantic space entity that has killed tens of thousands of Earthlings: anyone who gets close to Xantippie dies.

 Its a Long Way to Xantippie. Along the way, one crewman kills himself and another is murdered. Everyone except Rip is suffering from paranoia. When they get close to Xantippie, the crewmen with programmed dual personalities shift to their second personality because... plot. 

Medusa in the Ekcolir Reality

Rip takes command and uses the spaceship's Super Disintegrator Ray™ to super disintegrate Xantippie. At the end of the mission, with Xantippie destroyed, Rip is offered the command of his own spaceship. Rip was the only person among thousands of volunteers whose mind could not be broken by Earth's psychoscientists, to they sent Rip to Xantippie with the hope that he would be able to resist the alien mind of Xantippie. He did and Humanity lives happily ever after.

Sadly, Sturgeon provided no explanation for how the Xantippie life-form was able to reach out far into space and take control of human brains. Also at the end of the story, readers are told that Xantippie was on the brink of reproducing and sending a swarm of "spores" out into space.

interior art for "To Marry Medusa"

 Return to Gurlick. Did Sturgeon think of "To Marry Medusa" as a sequel to his earlier story "Medusa"? Two days after the alien "spore" (Sturgeon also refers to it a semen) enters into Gurlick he becomes aware of the Medusan hive mind which spans parts of three galaxies. 

 Interstellar Telepathy. Sadly, we are told nothing about how any of this is possible. So, is "To Marry Medusa" a science fiction story or magical fantasy? In Sturgeon's imaginary universe of the tri-galactic Medusa, humans are exceptional. On all other worlds with life, creatures are telepathic group minds. So, when the Medusa hive mind links into Gurlick, it has no comprehension of the fact that Gurlick's mind is not already part of the Human Hive Mind™.

highly contrived

 Game On. Sadly for the Medusan spore, once it integrates with a nervous system it is trapped in the host body. Now stuck inside Gurlick, the Medusan hive mind must work through Gurlick in its attempt to absorb all of Humanity. None of this makes any sense, but hey, we are inside the mind of Sturgeon. Can we resist this alien entity?

image source

 Magical Fantasy. Resistance is futile. As soon as Gurlick/Medusa sees an electroencephalography device, Medusa hatches a plan to turn Humanity into a hive mind. Soon an army of alien robots is manufactured and they use magic "projectors" to alter the minds of all Earthlings, creating a hive mind for Humanity. The Human Hive Mind™ immediately destroys the alien robot army and then takes control of Medusan intergalactic hive mind. The End.

I must add that I'm rather astounded that "To Marry Medusa" got published in Astounding. "To Marry Medusa" was written like bad television... whenever the limping plot began to drag, Sturgeon threw in another rape scene, punch in the face or other disgusting diversion.

 Man Shortage. The final story by Keyes that I found was "Something Borrowed", published in the Summer 1952 issue of Fantastic Story Magazine. 

The Mars Men Cometh.

 Telepathic Marsmen. Due to the effects of nuclear war (or something) there is a shortage of men on Earth. However, the men of Mars have long planned to conquer Earth. They telepathically sweet-talk the Earth women into shutting off the shields. However, the Mars men now have double trouble. The women of Mars are jealous of the Women of Earth, so the Mars men call off their invasion. The women of Earth must now invade Mars.

interior art for "The House on the Vacant Lot"

 Time Travel. Also in that issue of Fantastic Story was "The House on the Vacant Lot" by Mari Wolf. Two years ago I wrote a story featuring Mari as a character. In "The House on the Vacant Lot", Ronald, a man in 1952, is accidentally taken thousands of years into the future.

In that future time, Junior (see the image to the left) has discovered the secret of time travel. In the future, Ronald meets Nora and sparks begin to fly. 💕

Ronald and Nora are sent back to 1952 where they live happily ever after... although Nora has to stop wearing miniskirts so that she can fit into 1950s society.

"Since that last tool upgrade, they spend more time playing with each-other than working."

interior art for "Robots of the World! Arise!"

 Telepathic Robots. I finally read "Robots of the World! Arise!" by Mari Wolf. This story seems like a sequel to Isaac Asimov's story "Reason". Telepathic robots decide that they should have human rights and they begin a robot revolution. However, they quickly realize that they are better off if they continue to work for humans.

ERA. Now that the more sophisticated robots can think and reason, they decide that they should have the right to vote.

Educating Eric

In the November 1953 issue of If was "Homo Inferior" by Mari Wolf. The story is similar to Arthur Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night". For "Homo Inferior" it is Eric (not Alvin) who at some point in the far future takes an ancient spaceship from Earth into outer space, long after the glorious age of space exploration has ended.

Eric is a non-telepath who is born among the telepathic population of Earth. Eric is a throw-back, unable to use telepathy. The idea of throw-backs is also there in "The House on the Vacant Lot" (above). Nora is a throw-back, so she is happy to go with Ronald into the past.

Eric and Lisa

Eric finds a few more throw-backs living in the mountains, particularly a young woman named Lisa. Eric and Lisa take an old spaceship that is in a museum and they go off into outer space. The end. I wondered if maybe Wolf had written a sequel to "Homo Inferior" showing us the fate of Eric and Lisa, but neither of her two stories published during 1954 in If were such a story. 😢

Related Reading: "Escape Me Never" by J. T. McIntosh

Next: Observing Mars

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