Caliban (by Roger MacBride Allen) Notes
(Byron-Preiss trade paperback)
- pp 3 - 5
- p 5
- from Early History of Colonization by Sarhir
Vadid, Baleyworld U., S.E. 1231
- p 6
- Fredda Leving, tea mug
- red metallic feet
- CBN-001, Caliban
- blue eyes
- tall
- metallic red body
- p 7
- on-board datastore
- Caliban has thermocouple sensors (for temperature) in fingertip
- 2 m tall
- Sheriff's Robot Donald DNL-111
- p 8
- city of Hades on planet Inferno
- on all Spacer worlds, only there could a scene of
such violence be reduced to a matter of routine
- Inferno different
- happening more and more often -> one human attacks
another at night, robot comes across crime scene,
reports it, suffers a major cognitive dissonance
breakdown, med-robots rush in, Sheriff Alvar Kresh
summoned by Sheriff's dispatch center
- Kresh feels Donald only one who can waken, dress, and
prepare him properly
- when Kresh wakes up in a bad mood, flies own aircar
to work off tension
- Donald a short, almost rotund robot painted metallic
shade of Sheriff's Department's sky-blue, carefully
designed to be inconspicuous. Head and body rounded,
sides and planes of his form flowing into each other
in smooth curves, short arms and legs, no effort made
to put more than merest sketch of a human face on front
of his head
- 2 blue-glowing eyes, speaker grille for a mouth, head
otherwise completely featureless
- p 9
- Fredda Leving herself built, named Donald
- DAA-BOR unit
- crudely mechanical, raspy voice, spoken aloud
rather than via hyperwave
- small, tan robot, no more than 1.5 m tall
- word-stutter in his speech => soon be on scrap-heap,
victim of First Law dissonance
- lacks brain capacity, fine motor skills, or visual
acuity to diagnose a head wound
- Daabor 5132
- p 10
- Madame Leving does not bring personal robot with her to work
- leading roboticist
- citizen of Inferno far more likely to venture out stark
naked than without a robot -> Inferno had a strong tradition
of modesty, even among Spacer worlds
- p 11
- Daabor has green eyes
- Donald's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Law potentials adjusted by
Fredda to make him capable of police work
- p 12
- Alvar Kresh Sheriff of the city of Hades
- monitor pads
- drug infusers
- lift stretcher
- observation robots recording images of the scene
from every angle
- molecular sniffers used by Police technical robots
- p 13
- Great Bay
- best weather Hades had had in a long time
(no sandstorms, dust haze)
- few humans even knew how to fly an aircar; most
thought the chore beneath them
- coffee button on aircar's beverage dispenser
- can drive aircar with top open
- p 14
- Leving Robotics Labs
- aircar can hover
- red and white ambulance aircar
- lift motors
- gleaming red and white med-robot has glowing
orange eyes
- p 15
- p 16
- department's staff roboticist
- household robots
- financial account codes
- p 17
- very rare robots mimick human appearance perfectly ->
precious few of those on Inferno
- p 18
- Fredda's lab 10 x 20 m
- 4 doors, in corners of room, set into long sides of
room: 2 on exterior wall, 2 on interior, windowless
-> light-tight room
- work counters run length of room, between the pairs
of doors, with computer terminals
- walls held outlets for various types of power supplies,
and special-purpose datataps
- counters have robot torso, robot head, boxes labeled
Handle with Care. Gravitonic Brains.
- for thousands of years, all robots had been built with
positronic brains
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Not complete, yet...
- p 12
- Alvar Kresh Sheriff of the city of Hades
- monitor pads
- drug infusers
- lift stretcher
- observation robots recording images of the scene
from every angle
- molecular sniffers used by Police technical robots
- p 6
- Fredda Leving, tea mug
- red metallic feet
- CBN-001, Caliban
- blue eyes
- tall
- metallic red body
- Inferno different
- happening more and more often -> one human attacks
another at night, robot comes across crime scene,
reports it, suffers a major cognitive dissonance
breakdown, med-robots rush in, Sheriff Alvar Kresh
summoned by Sheriff's dispatch center