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"The trouble with too much genre SF is that it's so obviously the product of the conscious mind."
- William Gibson

Mechanical Bride  
  A perfect robotic replica of a woman.  

In the story, a wealthy man decides to purchase a beautiful robot to have around the house. His former girlfriend, now a sales assistant to a robot company, decides on a path to revenge. She begins by describing the company's products.

"Mr. Shalk supplies the finest mannequins in the world. Streamlined, smooth-working, absolutely noiseless, breath-takingly realistic. Each one is powered by thirty-seven midget electric motors, all completely noiseless, and is controlled by instructions, recorded on magnetic tape, which are triggered off by the sound of your voice and no one else's. There is a built-in microphone that hears everything you say, and an electric brain that selects a suitable answer. The de luxe model is built to your specifications, has fifty different facial expressions, sings two hundred love songs, and can carry on a thousand fascinating conversations... But she has one serious defect. They all do.

"What's that?"

"They have no heart."

From The Mechanical Bride, by Fritz Leiber.
Published by Vanguard in 1954
Additional resources -

Rita states her point of view early in the story, talking with old Chernik, the roboticist:

"...Men don't want real women anymore. You and I are behind the times, Chernik. We stil believe in love. But most men just want beautiful, brainless robots. That's all my man really wanted. He didn't want me to have a will of my own. He didn't want me to be alive...

As it turns out, real women with hearts turn out to be more dangerous than heartless robots.

Compare to the manufactured wife from A Wife Manufactured to Order (1895) by Alice W. Fuller, the robotess from R.U.R. (1920) by Karel Capek, the psychophonic nurse from The Psychophonic Nurse (1928) by David H. Keller, the teleoperated robot surrogate from The Robot and the Lady (1938) by Manly Wade Wellman, the maid-robot from The Midas Plague (1954) by Frederik Pohl and the Nanny from Nanny (1955) by Philip K. Dick.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Mechanical Bride
  More Ideas and Technology by Fritz Leiber
  Tech news articles related to The Mechanical Bride
  Tech news articles related to works by Fritz Leiber

Mechanical Bride-related news articles:
  - Sophia, The Personable Robot From Hanson Robotics.
  - EveR-1 Korean Android And The Mechanical Bride
  - Actroid DER2 Late Model Fembot
  - Zoltan's Fembot Wife
  - E.M.A. Robot Eternal Maiden Actualization Video
  - Robot Fashion Models
  - Actroid DER2 Gets TV Commercial Gig Video
  - Palette Super Model Robot
  - Aiko Fembot No Stepford Wife
  - HRP-4C Robot Woman Is A Cybernetic Humanoid
  - HRP-4C Robot In Wedding Dress A Mechanical Bride
  - Do You Need The Entire Fembot? Maybe Just The Hand
  - Sophia Robots By The Thousands

Articles related to Robotics
Robot Gas Station Attendant Fills Tank - Which I Saw In 1962
Toy-Like Robot Well-Being Coaches Are The Best
Scent-Identifying Robot Uses Machine Learning
Robot Imagines Itself (Not The First Time This Has Happened)

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