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[Non-member submission]
Wilson <wilson@supremetyrant.com> wrote:
> I remember reading a Sci-Fi book about this in the 80s.. Robots were given
> the command "Make humans happy."
Jack Williamson, "With Folded Hands" (1947) and _The Humanoids_
(1949). Particularly horrifying if you look at the direction our
welfare states are taking.
> After many years, they decided, based on the actions of humans,
> that life itself irritated them, given how much they complained
> about it. The obvious solution was to kill every human in the
> universe.
I don't recall that outcome. They did go out and made everybody
happy, though. Forcefully. By means of drugs and lobotomy, if
necessary.
Trivia: Last I heard, Williamson was still well and writing. The
man has been a professionally published writer for more than 70
years. He sold his first story in 1928(!).
-- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de
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