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"My father was a master mechanic; I grew up with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other."
- Frank Herbert

TBR (Talk Between Robots) Circuit  
  A special means of communications used by robots to speak with each other.  

Henry is a companion robot; it works diligently to arrange appointments and perform other tasks for its master.

"Fine! Well, get started on the other things, then."

"Yes, sir," said Henry, and assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits - the Talk Between Robots radio - as it arranged the appointments for its master.

Technovelgy from The Midas Plague, by Frederik Pohl.
Published by Galaxy in 1954
Additional resources -

I'm fascinated by the idea of robots that are able to communicate perfectly well in spoken English, but choose a private means of communication when talking with each other. It's as if they use a different language "below stairs" - out of the hearing of their masters.

Compare to Robot-Control Wave Band from Rex (1934) by Harl Vincent, mentanical communication from The Mentanicals (1934) by Francis Flagg and Autonomous Car Intercommunication from Sally (1953) by Isaac Asimov.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Midas Plague
  More Ideas and Technology by Frederik Pohl
  Tech news articles related to The Midas Plague
  Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl

TBR (Talk Between Robots) Circuit-related news articles:
  - RoboEarth Lets Robots Learn From Each Other
  - Machines Talk More To Each Other
  - RoboEarth Cloud Engine Makes Local Bots Smarter
  - Robots Take Our Jobs By Reading Our Instructions
  - Robots Will Learn From Each Other
  - When Computers Develop Their Own Language, Will They Talk To Us?
  - MIT's C-LEARN Helps Robots Transfer Learning To Other Robots
  - Should We Permit Computers To Create Their Own Language?
  - Drones Communicate With Each Other Using Quantum Encryption

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Will Whales Be Our First Contact?
NYC/Dublin Portal Fails To Meet 'Guardian Of Forever' Standards

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