Status of the Court robots

[sarapen]

I've been wondering for a while now about how exactly the Court's robots fit into the system. Are they property or employees or in between? Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think I've ever seen any of the adults talking to a robot, even for the purpose of giving orders.

The robots are definitely servants, since we see the students yelling at Boxbot for messing up. Well, some of the robots are servants anyway. They're probably not slaves since they apparently have their own government and hierarchy and it didn't seem like the kind of illicit underground committee slaves might form.

I suppose the robots might form a second administration within the political structure of the Court. They have autonomy and apparently even take care of disciplining their own (see the CPU prison). It was implied that Mr. Eglamore turned over Robot to his fellows to be judged by them.

The robots also seem to have the same agenda as the Court's human component. They were apparently also ticked off that Robot left school grounds and came back infected.

My own theory is that once Diego created the robots they set about governing themselves while doing whatever tasks needed doing, and they've been doing it for so long that they're invisible to the humans in charge. So in theory there are two Courts, the mechanical and the flesh, with the machines being subordinate to the flesh.

Anyway, these are just scattered ruminations, what does everyone else think?

[warrl]

I don't see the robots as servants, so much as part of the Gunnerkrigg Court physical plant: the facility's self-maintenance/defense capacity.

And we don't know exactly why S13 had his CPU taken out and his body made into paper clips. Among the possibilities are:
1) the fact that he came back from being disassembled and left inoperative in a closet (and why was that done to him?)
2) the fact that he went into the forest
3) the fact that he came back infected
4) the fact that he attacked a human

There's another story I read a while back where a pretty impressive and self-isolated physical facility has a similar duality of occupants (those who live in and use the facility and maintain/operate certain parts of it, and those who don't interact much with the first group but do all other maintenance). That story is Neil Stephenson's book "Anathem".

[sarapen]

So they're more like red and white blood cells, with the Court being the whole organism? And the humans are just incidental to their duties?

Hmm, I'm not sure how well the defence thing applies since the robots we've seen are pretty flimsy. The one robot whose actual job was security was easily dispatched with a lead pipe to the head. I guess Diego's matador and bull robots might qualify but none of the current robots seem quite as durable.

I wonder now if the other robots know S13 is an escaped convict. He's friends with Sky Watcher, but reading that story again, S13 apparently disappears when the robot king arrives. Was he hiding?

And oh yeah, I've also read Anathem. I like the ending better than for Stephenson's other books because it's not as abrupt. The premise of any human institution - no matter how rabidly conservative - remaining unchanged for millennia is frankly ludicrous, but I suspended my disbelief on that and just let it ride. Plus it was fun playing spot the philosophy with the alternate universe.

[the bandit]

Jun 6, 2010 17:16:57 GMT sarapen said:

I like the ending better than for Stephenson's other books because it's not as abrupt.

Which is funny, because my only problem with it was the relative-to-his-other-works more abrupt ending.

[warrl]

Jun 6, 2010 17:16:57 GMT sarapen said:

Hmm, I'm not sure how well the defence thing applies since the robots we've seen are pretty flimsy. The one robot whose actual job was security was easily dispatched with a lead pipe to the head. I guess Diego's matador and bull robots might qualify but none of the current robots seem quite as durable.

Sawbots

[sarapen]

Jun 7, 2010 14:59:18 GMT the bandit said:

Jun 6, 2010 17:16:57 GMT sarapen said:

I like the ending better than for Stephenson's other books because it's not as abrupt.

Which is funny, because my only problem with it was the relative-to-his-other-works more abrupt ending.

Really? Usually when I get to the end of one of Stephenson's books I turn the page and am surprised to find myself looking at the back cover. Maybe I've just managed to lower my expectations vis a vis Stephenson endings.

And thanks warrl, I forgot about those sawbots. Looks like they were specifically designed to fight the dog-trees. I wonder who designed them, the humans or the robots? Like maybe the machines saw there was a niche that needed exploiting. Or did the humans tell them they needed something for rogue trees?