Weak on Square Roots by Russell Burton
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"Weak on Square Roots" by Russell Burton is a science fiction short story published in the early 1950s. The narrative revolves around the creation of a robot named Pascal by Ronald Lovegear, who struggles to balance his obsession with technology and his marital relationship. The story explores themes of artificial intelligence, human emotions, and the potential complexities that arise when machines take on roles traditionally held by people. The plot follows Ronald
as he brings home Pascal, a cutting-edge computer intended to become a mechanical servant. As Ronald immerses himself in perfecting Pascal's functionality, his wife, Corinne, becomes increasingly drawn to the robot, experiencing a conflicting mix of affection and disdain towards both Pascal and Ronald. The story culminates in a poignant moment when Ronald discovers a moment of intimacy between Corinne and Pascal, leading him to a painful realization about his wife’s emotional connection to the robot. Ultimately, he decides to rid their lives of Pascal, throwing away the pumpkin-headed creation that had inadvertently transformed their lives in ways he had not anticipated. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Burton, Russell |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Beecham, Tom, 1926-2000 |
| Title | Weak on Square Roots |
| Series Title | Produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1953. |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 75.7 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Robots -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 29976 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-29976-1 |
| Release Date | Sep 13, 2009 |
| Last Update | Jan 5, 2021 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 407 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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