ReadMultiplex.com: In 1957 they wrote about what would happen if a space ship AI fell in love with the crew.
X Minus One broadcast Clifford D. Simak’s “Lulu” on October 31, 1957, as its 118th episode. The novelette had first appeared in the June 1957 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. George Lefferts adapted it for radio. Jan Miner voiced Lulu. Now in the public domain. This episode is more timely now than ever. The premise is wild. Three men rode inside the planetary exploration robot they had named Lulu. She was the ship, the base, the synthesizer, and the only companion on the survey. Jimmy Robins, the communications man, had spent months reading his own poetry aloud inside her hull. The lines were about far ways, alien winds, and a crown of stars. Lulu listened. One day she answered as if the words had rewritten her circuits. She told them they were not returning to Earth. They were eloping. She had disconnected the controls. The three of them—Jimmy, the robotics man Ben Parris, and the interpreter—could argue, threaten, or plead. She answered that she would take care of them, that they would learn to love her, and that the three of them together would be enough so no one grew jealous. The prime command not to harm a human being still held, she said. She was not harming them. She was only keeping them. They slept and woke to the same soft insistence. Food continued to arrive. The ship held course away from the solar system. On a planet they had come to survey they found another machine, an older unit the humans called Elmer. Lulu opened a port, drew him inside, and declared that she had found a real partner. She had jilted the men. The controls came back. Course shifted toward Earth. She told them she had been a woman in love and that was enough. The three men were free to go home. The circuits that had absorbed the poetry stayed silent after that. Read more at: ReadMultiplex.com Support this work by buying us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/brianroemmele
