A review by nataliya_x
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 132, by S. Qiouyi Lu, Gu Shi, Geoff Ryman, Suzanne Palmer, Sara Saab, Neil Clarke, Jess Barber, Kelly Robson, Stephanie M. Bucklin, Tom Purdom, A. Brym, Chris Urie, Eric Schwitzgebel
5.0
This review is for Hugo-winning novelette The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer:
The little Bot 9 (dwarfed by giant 3 centimeter silk Bots) takes his task very seriously. So do the people who serve as the Ship’s rudimentary crew - they take their task very seriously too, as they need to save the Solar system from an alien invasion. And the big crew has no idea about the existence of the little mechanical crew of Bots, serving the Ship, doing their tasks, in their spare time chatting on botnet, reciting Mantras and forming a very peculiar culture. Secret Life of Bots, indeed.
What happens when an older generation Bot 9 (“I have never met a bot lower than a thousand, or without a specific function tag”) still carries the Improvisation Routine module instead of uninstalling it to keep up with the newer models? Well, sometimes there things that it needs to take in its own chassis (or its own grabber arm, I guess) and maybe go just a teensy bit rogue:
Terry Pratchett once noted, “Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” Not to disagree with Sir Terry (the horror of even thinking such a sacrilege!), but he clearly hasn’t met Bot 9. Bot 9 can do anything — save the semi-suicidal humans, Solar System, you name it — and still finish his task 944, eventually.
Also, I implore you - be nice to your Rumba or your smart watch or whatever smart appliance you may have. You never know when they get an improvisation routine — and you certainly want them on your side. I’m giving my iPad a hug right now.
5 multibot stars.
Read it (and listen to it) here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_09_17/
——————
——————
Edited to add: This issue also contains a wonderful novelette Pan-Humanism:Hope and Pragmatics by Jess Barber and Sara Saab.
This is a slow, measured tale of two people in the near future in which climate change has devastated the world. But priorities have changed, and culture has changed, and pan-humanism is what drives the work of restoration and fixing the problems we caused. All while two people are brought together and pulled apart time and again while working on fixing the world. It’s not as much a story as a chronicle of their lives, and it has a quiet charm that grows on you by the end of the story.
3.5 stars.
——————
Recommended by: carol.
“A rogue bot cannot be tolerated, whatever good it may have done.“It’s official - I found my second favorite bot (the top favorite being, of course, Murderbot, why’d you ask?). It’s Bot 9, a teeny-tiny multipurpose bot on a formerly decommissioned Ship that now has been commandeered from the junkyard for a very dangerous mission. The Ship, that is. Bot 9’s mission is simple - task 944, take care of a pest plaguing the Ship.
“The bot would rather have been fixing something more exciting, more prominently complex, than to be assigned pest control, but the bot existed to serve and so it would.“
The little Bot 9 (dwarfed by giant 3 centimeter silk Bots) takes his task very seriously. So do the people who serve as the Ship’s rudimentary crew - they take their task very seriously too, as they need to save the Solar system from an alien invasion. And the big crew has no idea about the existence of the little mechanical crew of Bots, serving the Ship, doing their tasks, in their spare time chatting on botnet, reciting Mantras and forming a very peculiar culture. Secret Life of Bots, indeed.
“It was eighty-two point four percent convinced that there was something much more seriously wrong with the Ship than it had been told, but it was equally certain Ship must be attending to it.”
When the connection dropped, Bot 9 hesitated before it spoke to 4340. “I have an unexpected internal conflict,” it said. “I have never before felt the compulsion to ask Ship questions, and it has never before not given me answers.”
What happens when an older generation Bot 9 (“I have never met a bot lower than a thousand, or without a specific function tag”) still carries the Improvisation Routine module instead of uninstalling it to keep up with the newer models? Well, sometimes there things that it needs to take in its own chassis (or its own grabber arm, I guess) and maybe go just a teensy bit rogue:
“Please! We all wish you great and quick success, despite your outdated and primitive manufacture.”
“Thank you,” Bot 9 said, though it was not entirely sure it should be grateful, as it felt its manufacture had been entirely sound and sufficient regardless of date.
It left that compartment before the hullbot could compliment it any further.”
Terry Pratchett once noted, “Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” Not to disagree with Sir Terry (the horror of even thinking such a sacrilege!), but he clearly hasn’t met Bot 9. Bot 9 can do anything — save the semi-suicidal humans, Solar System, you name it — and still finish his task 944, eventually.
Also, I implore you - be nice to your Rumba or your smart watch or whatever smart appliance you may have. You never know when they get an improvisation routine — and you certainly want them on your side. I’m giving my iPad a hug right now.
5 multibot stars.
Read it (and listen to it) here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_09_17/
——————
——————
Edited to add: This issue also contains a wonderful novelette Pan-Humanism:Hope and Pragmatics by Jess Barber and Sara Saab.
This is a slow, measured tale of two people in the near future in which climate change has devastated the world. But priorities have changed, and culture has changed, and pan-humanism is what drives the work of restoration and fixing the problems we caused. All while two people are brought together and pulled apart time and again while working on fixing the world. It’s not as much a story as a chronicle of their lives, and it has a quiet charm that grows on you by the end of the story.
3.5 stars.
——————
Recommended by: carol.