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"There's a poetry in the materials we use to construct our world of artifacts; it speaks of our long history as a technological species."
- William Gibson
 |
| R. Daneel Olivaw | ||
| A human-like robot, skilled in police work. |
In this future Earth, a New York City detective must meet and work with an off-world robotic partner.
| Baley approached woodenly and said in a monotone, "I am Plainclothes Man Elijah Baley, Police Department, City of New York, Rating C-5." He showed his credentials and went on, "I have been instructed to meet R. Daneel Olivaw at Spacetown Approachway." He looked at his watch. "I am a little early. May I request the announcement of my presence?" He felt more than a little cold inside. He was used, after a fashion, to the Earth-model robots. The Spacer models would be different. He had never met one, but there was nothing more common on Earth than the horrid whispered stories about the tremendous and formidable robots that worked in superhuman fashion on the far-off, glittering Outer Worlds. He found himself gritting his teeth... The Spacer said, "I shall introduce myself. I am R. Daneel Olivaw... I am a robot. Were you not told?" The robot's hand closed on his with a smoothly increasing pressure that reached a comfortably friendly peak, then declined. "Yet I seem to detect disturbance. May I ask that you be frank with me? It is best to have as many relevant facts as possible in a relationship such as ours. And it is customary on my world for partners to call one another by the familiar name. I trust that that is not counter to your own customs." |
| Technovelgy from Caves of Steel,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Galaxy in 1953 Additional resources -
|
The pair must work together to solve the murder of a prominent Spacer on the over-populated Earth.
The "R" in his partner's name stands, of course, for "Robot."
The oldest direct reference to the phrase "robot cop" is probably from Modern Mechanix in 1935:
RUTHLESS speeders, driving with one eye on the rear vision mirror for signs of a trailing traffic officer, now have a new enemy to watch out for, a robot speed meter which instantly gauges the speed of a car on the highway.
The speed meter is small, and can easily be moved from one place to another. On one side of the road is an apparatus which directs two parallel beams of light, invisible to the driver, upon a mechanism on the opposite side of the road. The length of time taken by a car to intercept both beams of light is shown in terms of miles per hour on the meter.
The speed trap is the invention of Dr. Harry Silva, head of the psychology laboratory at the Massachusetts State College, and already attracting the attention of police and traffic officials all over the country. Tests prove it operates with negligible error.
Compare to 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.
(Speeders are timed by Robot Cop)
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'If the biological robots were not living creatures, they were certainly very good imitations.'
"Everybody and his dog, it seemed, wanted to live out in the country; transportation and communication were no longer isolating factors."
'... the new typewriter that could be talked to, and which transposed the spoken sound into typed words.'
'... underneath they consisted of networks of cooling tubes against the skin.'
'My cars talk to one another. I have no doubt about it...'
'... the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell.'
