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"Cyberpunk worked when the Internet was in its hand-wound crystal radio phase, when you had to be a sort of hobbyist to do e-mail, and it all had a very steep learning curve. Those days are over."
- William Gibson
 |
| Man Afraid of Machines | ||
| Why are human beings sometimes afraid of machines? |
In this story, an intelligent Martian robot is stranded on Earth, and must find its own way.
| Men afraid of a machine.
It was incomprehensible. Why should they be afraid? Surely man and machine are natural complements : they assist one another. For a moment I thought I must have misread their minds — it was possible that thoughts registered differently on this planet, but it was a possibility I soon dismissed.
 ('The Lost Machine' by John B. Harris) There were only two reasons for this apprehension. The one, that they had never seen a machine or, the other, that third planet machines had pursued a line of development inimical to them. |
| Technovelgy from The Lost Machine,
by John B. Harris. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
The Martian robot had little in common with Earth machines:
As I drew clear of the bushes, I obtained a full view of the thing for the first time and disappointment hit me like a blow. The thing had wheels. Not just necescessary parts of its internal arrangements, but wheels actually in contact with the ground. In a flash the explanation of all these hard streaks came to me. Unbelievable though it may seem, this thing could only follow a track specially built for it.
Later I found that this was more or less true of all third planet land machines, but my first discouragement was painful. The primitive barbarity of the thing saddened me more than any discovery I had yet made.
Forlornly, and with little hope, I spoke to it.
There was no answer.
It stood there dumbly inert upon its foolish wheels as though it were a part of the ground itself.
Walking closer, I began to examine with growing disgust its crude internal arrangements. Incredibly, I found that its only means of propulsion was by a series of jerks from frequent explosions. Moreover, it was so ludicrously unorganized that both driving engine and brakes could be applied at the same time.
Sadly, as I gazed at the ponderous parts within, I began to feel that I was indeed alone. Until this encounter, my hope of discovering an intelligent machine had not really died...
No wonder they feared machines when their own mechanisms were as inefficient and futile as this. What reliance or trust could they place in a machine so erratic — so helpless that it could not even temporarily repair itself? It was not under its own control and only partially under theirs.
I was determined to know this machine.
('The Lost Machine' by John B. Harris)
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
