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"I operate by a code that makes me responsible for what I do, makes me definitely, directly, genuinely responsible. I am precisely the kind of person I made myself out to be."
- Harlan Ellison
 |
| Brillo | ||
| A police robot. |
| It was August, that special heat
of August when the temperature
keeps going till it reaches the secret
kill-crazy mugginess at which point
eyeballs roll up white in florid faces
and gravity knives appear as if by
magic, it was that time of August,
when Brillo arrived in the precinct. Buzzing softly-the sort of sound an electric watch makes-he stood inert in the center of the precinct station's bullpen, his bright blue-anodized metal a gleaming contrast to the paintless worn floorboards. He stood in the middle of momentary activity, and no one who passed him seemed to be able to pay attention to anything but him...
 (Brillo from 'Brillo' by Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison) ...All eyes kept returning to the robot: a squat cylinder resting on tiny trunnions. Brillo's optical sensors, up in his dome-shaped head, bulged like the eyes of an acromegalic insect. The eyes caught the glint of the overhead neons... "Why do you call it Brillo?" "It's... a nickname. Somebody at UE thought it up. Thought it was funny." The whiz kid looked blank. "What's funny about Brillo?" "Metal fuzz," the police chief rasped. Light dawned on the whiz kid's face, and he began to chuckle... |
| Technovelgy from Brillo,
by Ben Bova (w/H. Ellison). Published by Analog in 1970 Additional resources -
|
The role of police robots?
It isn't going to be easy getting people who work to accept robots working beside them:
Compare to R. Daneel Olivaw from Caves of Steel (1953) by Isaac Asimov, the undercover detective robot from The Velvet Glove (1956) by Harry Harrison, the precogs from The Minority Report (1956) by Philip K. Dick, the Pry-Vie robotic detective from Clans of the Alphane Moon (1964) by Philip K. Dick and Sven, the artificially intelligent detective from The Turing Option (1992) by Harry Harrison.
Police robots are
intended to augment the existing
force." Even more firmly he said,
"Not replace it. We're trying to
help the policeman, not get rid of
him."
('Brillo with officer' by Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison)
They're still
afraid of machines, you know.
We've pushed them and shoved
them and lumbered them with machines till they're afraid the next
clanking item down the pike is going to put them on the bread line.
So they don't want to cooperate.
They don't do it on purpose. They
may not even know they're doing
it, hell, I don't think Polchik knew
what was happening, why he was
falling over his feet tonight. You
can get a robot to act like a human
being, Mr. Reardon. Maybe you're
right and you can do it, just like
you said. But how the hell are you
going to get humans to act like
robots and not be afraid of machines?"
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