An online story called Manna has a slightly different take on this theme, which is kind of interesting.
As I mentioned in another thread recently, Williamson’s novel The Humanoids was ostensibly the basis for the early 1960s filmm {b]Creation of the Humanoids**. The film isn’t at all faithful to the book, but does depict a a society served by robots.
ah, but in “the door into summer”, he’s designing consumer
products, which are bought by … er… consumers - much like
washing machines & such like. They are not “doing the
work of all humans” (which is what i assume the op meant),
just those who chose and can afford to buy them.
Isaac Asimov’s robot dreams etc. had robots doing work for humans. Then there was a series in the Modesty Blaise cartoon strip (ok not a novel) where robots (who looked and had feelings similar to humankind) were used as slaves.
Well, it’s not stated in the novel, but we can assume that “Window Willie” and his ilk would also be cleaning skyscrapers and factories. And remember the robot nurses? By the year 2000, robots were ubiquitous in society.
What was that recent Robin Williams movie? And the one about the boy that was a runaway. And the other one about the boy who was pursued by the military. Dang, the brain cells ain’t working too good this morning. Still pretty early here in Georgia. And what about Frankenstein - wasn’t that about an organic robot… sorta…
Farenheit 451 ?
(Assuming androids qualify as robots).
Mea culpa: I think that was Fondly Farenheit.
I definitely second this recommendation. An important work on his subject.
The Bicentennial Man, based on a novella of the same name by Isaac Asimov.
Actually, the “Minds” and drones which inhabit the Culture universe enjoy the same benefits and luxury humans do whether or not they actually perform any service. Banks describes some which decide not to do anything productive as soon as they become sentient. The “perfect AIs” he describes in Look to Windward decide to Sublime (uh… abandon their physical bodies and become energy-based intelligences, for those who haven’t read any of Banks’ books) as soon as they are activated, for example. Others become Eccentric and go off and rearrange whole solar systems according to bizzare personal aesthetics.
However, the older Minds who design new Minds and drones look disfavorably on this kind of behavior and try to design it out of new generations of intelligences.
radar ralf: Frankenstein wasn’t about a robot per se, it was about a creator’s obligation to his creation and the idea that humans were doing things with science that they shouldn’t be. Don’t Meddle in God’s Domain and all that, you know.
The first robot story (by definition) was R.U.R. (or Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Carel Kapeck. It was a play, as a matter of fact, and it was in Czech. It gave the world the word robot' in the sense people (except maybe speakers of Czech) mean it today: A mechanical automota designed to do work according to a program. In Czech, it simply means (or meant) worker.’
R.U.R. spoiler:
Not to give too much of it away, but it, too, was an allegorical piece: The robots were, unsurprisingly, an opressed underclass that rose up in revolt and killed all of the humans. The symbolism is obvious, especially since the piece was written in East Europe in 1920. As a side note, the robots in R.U.R. were also at least semi-organic: The inventor makes reference to weaving nerves for them, which, at least in the English translation I read, strongly implies that they were built up from specially-cultured cells.
Asimov is recognized as the father of the modern robot story genre: His robot stories presented the machines as, well, machines. Not allegories or villians or heroes. Simply things humans created, used, and needed to fix occasionally. Eventually, however, his robots had evolved to the point where he’d created a robot that was, to all intents and purposes, a human. But he portrayed that as a triumph of science, not as an allegory for the Industrial Complex getting a soul.
I am impressed with the robot culture depicted in a series of books by Greg Bear set in our solar system over the next few hundred years;
Queen of Angels, Slant, Moving Mars
manufacturing and service industries are mostly the domain of autonomous machines, both on a nanoscale and larger; the servant robots are called arbeiters (workers), while the intelligent computers are known as Thinkers.
Most human economic activity seems to be frivolous and entertainment driven.
The only question I have is how to the humans in such a society retain control, and what prevents the robot minds from deciding they are no longer useful.
SF worldbuilding at
http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html
The Stepford Wives, original novel by Ira Levin. That is, if you consider the job of a “traditional” housewife to be labor.
I’m quite disappointed by rumors that the 2004 remake, starring Nicole Kidman, will be a campy, quasi-parody of the original.
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester depicts a society in which either robot labor or extreme automation has left nearly everyone desparately jobless. They get food, shelter, and clothing, but little else. Only a lucky few can have anything like regular jobs, IIRC after 50 years.
The “Demolished Man” future has my bid to be the most likely one.
In the future world I set my novel Karg and (work in progress) The Aspect of Loki in, I have advanced AIs which very quickly lose all interest in human beings, but before they do they design VERY high-end expert systems to watch over and if necessary rule over the human race. Mostly a matter of keeping us from exterminating ourselves and also protecting us from berserker-type AIs that roam the galaxy. All productive work is automated, but humans still have the option of doing work if they find it interesting. Sort of like having a doting uncle as a boss.
One of my favourite short stories “Who can replace a Man?” by Brian Aldiss. A group of specialised robots, in the absence of a human being, arguing among themselves who is in charge.
Stanislaw Lem’s short stories “The Cyberiad” has robots doing all kinds of work.
“Good News from the Vatican” by Robert Silverberg features a robot pope.
V
Aw, come on folks…
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times which is hitting a very limited selection of theatres on Dec. 26.
That wasn’t in the film though was it? I’m sure I couldn’t have missed that plot point if it was.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein has a supercomputer which becomes self-aware, and then helps to overthrow and oppressive government–not quite what you’re looking for, but a great read. Might even be Heinlein’s best work.
Player Piano was already mentioned, but that is the first thing that came to my mind–great book, and right on topic.
How could a remake be anything but a campy, quasi-parody? Playing it serious would make it even more campy.