Word: robots
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What much-ballyhooed show has the following elements: 1) a wise old man whose mission is to save the human race; 2) an unusually nasty villain who wants to destroy the human race; 3) two handsome young bucks who trade good-humored gibes; 4) the most huggable little robot in the universe; 5) a bizarre barroom populated by inhuman creatures on a desert planet; 6) lots of gray spaceships whishing around against a brilliant blue background...
...psychic, $750,000 later (his labor, which he figures at $20 an hour), Skora had remade the mountain of junk in his own image and likeness, more or less. And he looked upon it and saw it was good. And he called it Arok. Following the custom among home robot builders, Arok is Skora spelled backward (without...
Skora had not simply built a robot; any science fair show-off can do that. He had built a better robot. At 6 ft. 8 in. and 275 lbs., Arok looks something like an air-conditioning duct on roller skates. But this man of steel can lift 125 lbs. dead weight, bend 45° at the waist and locomote forward or backward at a top speed of 3 m.p.h. Arok can vacuum the rug, take out the trash, serve a tray of Dr. Peppers' (Skora does not drink hard liquor...
...rather, when Skora speaks through him. Slip a preprogrammed tape cassette into a slot in Arok's back and he will perform a medley of his domestic hits: bend over, rotate his head 180°, shake your hand, tell bad jokes: "You can be replaced by a robot because robots never make mistakes, mistakes, mistakes...
Some months ago, Skora began to fear that Arok was lonely. So now the inventor is staying up nights in his garage, amid piles of eviscerated household appliances, working on a companion masterpiece: an even better robot. Skora says Arok's new sibling will do everything Arok can, plus open doors, light cigars and perform dozens of more complicated tasks that require feedback and self-correction. He (she?) will be semismart, with microprocessors and slow-scan television to guide his (her?) actions and, Skora hopes, the ability to take instructions direct from the inventors' brain waves. Sneb...