Yesterday I got a phone call from a robot.
No kidding, a robot. If this had happened when I was 10, you never would’ve gotten me off the phone. I would have excitedly talked that robot, who’d innocently called our house to give my wife a programmed survey on politics or laundry soap or something, into a heuristic coma. Talk to a robot?? Are you kidding me? They would have had to pry the phone out of my tiny sweaty hands. I would’ve asked it a thousand questions about the future, and life as a robot, and if it had any friends from Jupiter, and ten million other things. Who wouldn’t want to talk to a robot, like, for hours?
My wife, as it turns out. “Those survey bots are annoying,” she said. They’ve been calling for months and she’s bored with them already.
Bored. With robots.
I have to admit that modern robots are a little, well, dull (and that goes double for the damn chatbots, especially the ones who call our house with political surveys). They’re obsolete already. No one has patience with them, because everyone’s waiting for robots to get a lot cooler. Like with laser rifles or something. My wife wouldn’t have hung up on a chatbot with a laser rifle, I can tell you that.
Why is everyone waiting for robots to be so much cooler, with awesome accessories like laser rifles? Because that’s what science fiction has conditioned us to expect. Many of the greatest characters in the most vibrant literature of the past century have been robots—and pretty damn cool robots at that—and SF fans love them dearly.
Buy the Book
Exit Strategy: The Murderbot Diaries
This is a serious problem for those of us who make a living creating robots and artificial intelligences. I work for a machine learning company in Chicago, and we run into this all the time. We spend millions in R&D on brand new, cutting edge products, real state-of-the-art stuff, and still. You can see it in the clients’ eyes during the demo. The disappointment. It’s fine, I guess, but when will we get a bank-monitoring A.I. with a little more personality, or maybe a laser rifle? That’s what those eyes are saying.
I don’t know any other industry that has this problem. The problem of competing with the future. Of constantly appearing to be obsolete because science fiction has gotten there decades before us, and done it better. So, so much better. You think you have it tough when your competition down the street has half-price Fridays? Frickin’ laser rifles, that what I have to compete with.
This problem is especially acute for me because the day job isn’t the only time I have to deal with robots. In June, my first novel, The Robots of Gotham, was released. It has robots in it. Like, a ton of robots. To be honest I kinda lost count of how many robots but, man. There’s a lot.
The robots in my novel don’t monitor banks. They build moon bases and rule nations, and cool stuff like that. At least in the book I was able to kit them out with decent gear, like mechanized drones and underwater lairs. (And laser rifles. Like I’d forget that.) The book has sold well, already into a second printing, which would be thrilling except that I’m pretty certain its success has more to do with America’s infatuation with robots than anything to do with me.
But if I wanted to add something meaningful to the rich history of robot literature, I knew I had to make an effort to really understand what it is that we love so much about thinking machines. I’ve spent a lot of time pondering that question. And with your indulgence, I’d like to present here a concise study in popular robotics: my list of the Greatest Science Fiction Robots of all Time.
Not the most powerful, or the purely most popular, but those that have forged an enduring relationship with readers. There are characters here from comics, movies, TV, and novels, and all of them have earned a lasting place in our hearts.
Yes, there’s a robotic villain or two, but what can I tell you? We can’t help who we love. Human are complex and contradictory creatures, even more so than machines.
For now.
Note: My definition of “robot” for this list is deliberately wide, and includes both classic robots, androids, and man-made artificial intelligences of all kinds. Spoiler Warnings for multiple novels and films ahead.
Murderbot — All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com, 2017)
Murderbot is the newcomer on this list. But just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s a lightweight. The murderous android’s first appearance in last year’s All Systems Red, a Tor.com novella, gave Martha Wells her first Nebula Award, her first New York Times bestseller—and just won her her first Hugo Award.
Murderbot is one of the most fascinating and well-conceived fictional robots of the 21st century—and it’s definitely got one of the best backstories. An antisocial A.I. at the center of a massacre that gave it is name, Murderbot just wants to be left alone (and if I were advising you on things to leave alone, a killing machine called “Murderbot” would probably be at the top of my list). But it also wants its memories back, particularly the memories from the time it went rogue, and the killing began.
Set in a corporation-ruled spacefaring future, the four-part tale of Murderbot is one of the most acclaimed science fiction series of the past few years. It’s a fast-paced noir adventure that happens to be set in deep space, and also happens to ask deep questions on the roots of consciousness and the future of artificial intelligence. The third installment, Rogue Protocol, arrived last month, and the fourth, Exit Strategy, comes fast on its heels in October. If you want a cutting edge tale of robot mayhem, Murderbot is your ticket.
Atomic Robo — Atomic Robo, Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener (IDW Comics, 2007)
Atomic Robo is the brainchild of writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener, and his exciting and hilarious misadventures have made him one of the greatest heroes in modern comics.
In his first adventure, he’s parachuted into the mountain lair of Nazi supervillain Baron Heinrich von Helsingard to bring him to justice. When the evil Baron hastily implants the all-powerful Vril organ into his own body and begins his ascent to godhood, hovering over the battlefield long enough to announce the organ makes him invincible, Robo says “They ought to call you ‘Baron von Brags About His Only Weakness,'” and shoots the glowy organ. Helsingard plummets to earth and Robo returns to America victorious.
There are more powerful and famous robots on this list. But if the world needed to be saved tomorrow, Atomic Robo is the one I’d most want at my side. He’s funny, self-deprecating, and supremely competent. And he has great taste in friends. I wish I could go with him on his adventures.
R. Daneel Olivaw — The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1954)
R. Daneel Olivaw is one of the most famous robots in science fiction, and he’s certainly our finest robot detective, which has got to count for something. In his first real case he teams with human investigator Elijah Baley to solve the murder of his co-creator Dr. Sarton. To complicate matters further, Olivaw is the first humanoid robot ever constructed, and in fact looks identical to the dead Sarton. Which is the kind of thing that has to mess you up, even if you’re a robot.
Still, being able to move undercover among humans turns out to be pretty darn useful, especially in a society prejudiced against robots. Olivaw and Baley prove to be an effective crime-solving duo, and their adventures (separately and together) continued for decades in Asimov’s classic Robot and Foundation novels, most notably The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire, Prelude to Foundation, and others.
Olivaw has another impressive accomplishment—the dude lives a long, long time, even for a robot. He’s built on Earth in the year 5020 A.D, and lives the entire millennia-long span of the First Empire, the famous Second Empire designed by the Second Foundation, and even survives until the formation of the group consciousnesses Galaxia. I don’t really know how long that is, but trust me, when suns wind down before you do, you’ve got one heck of a warranty.
R2-D2 — Star Wars, directed by George Lucas (20th Century Fox, 1977)
R2-D2 is one of the most famous robots of all time, full stop. He is funny, charming, universally loved, and about as iconic as a 3-foot machine can possibly get. Which, let’s face it, is an astonishing accomplishment for a character that hasn’t had a single comprehensible line in his entire film career.
In fact, the love we feel for R2-D2 informs us more about the human capacity for robot affinity than any other character on this list. It’s easy to love a machine like Astro Boy or R. Daneel Olivaw, because they look so human. It’s easy to forget they’re robots, and in fact, other than a few mechanical affectations, narratively speaking most of the time they are essentially human.
But when you look like a trash compactor with wheels, lazy writing doesn’t work to your advantage. And when you communicate exclusively with chirps and whistles, it’s very difficult to really connect with an audience. Which makes the love we feel for R2-D2 something of a revelation. Why do we love him so? Why does he connect with us in a way that the fussy and fastidious C-3PO does not? Because R2-D2 is brave, loyal, and true to his friends. And it seems humans value that those qualities above almost all others.
Terminator — The Terminator, directed by James Cameron (Orion Pictures, 1984)
Oh, come on. You knew the Terminator was on this list somewhere. James Cameron’s classic robotic creation, the unstoppable T-800, has been supplanted by more up-to-date models versions in the sequels, but it has never been replaced in our hearts. Mostly because those ones weren’t played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger brought both gravity and sly humor to the Terminator, arguably his greatest role. In the 1984 original he was a chilling, implacable monster; in the 1991 sequel T2 he became mankind’s greatest defender. All it took was a tweak to his programming.
Maybe that’s another reason we love robots so much. Because they remind us that the tools at our disposal, no matter how powerful and horrible, are no more than the reflections of our own aspirations.
Wall-E — Wall-E, directed by Andrew Stanton (Pixar, 2008)
I had a passionate defense for Wall-E’s placement on this list, ahead of his more famous robotic counterparts like R2-D2 and the Terminator. But you know what? The heck with it. Wall-E is one of the greatest film protagonists of all time, robotic or otherwise, and his ranking on this list should be self-evident. Take that, Wall-E haters.
What’s so great about Wall-E? After all, he’s not nearly as competent as Atomic Robo—not even close!—nor as brave as R2-D2, or as cool at the Terminator. In fact, he’s pretty much a sad sack little trash compactor of a robot, stuck with the unglamorous job of cleaning up the massive mess we made of our home planet while humanity tools around in the stars.
Wall-E wins our hearts through his tenderness, and his naked humanity. Wall-E has hopes and dreams and strange little aspirations, and the capacity to bring that hope to others. It’s a rare gift for anyone, human or otherwise. Wall-E won a Hugo and Nebula Award, as well as an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and topped Time‘s list of “Best Movies of the Decade.” Hope is a powerful thing, and it beats laser rifles. Every time.
HAL 9000 — 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1968)
If you wanna talk famous robots, you can’t get much more iconic than HAL, the creation of director Stanley Kubrick and SF author Arthur C. Clarke.
HAL is one of the scariest and most omniscient villains ever created for a science fiction film—or any film, for that matter. And he accomplishes all his sophisticated villainy while totally lacking things most robots take for granted. Like arms and legs, or even a head. Or a laser rifle. For most of the film he’s just a big red eye and a slow, thoughtful voice. That’s some serious villain chops.
What makes HAL so great in 2001: A Space Odyssey is that he’s a dark enigma. A brand new form of elevated intelligence, tasked with controlling operations of the Discovery One spacecraft, HAL is both supremely competent and inscrutable. Why does he go crazy and murder his fellow crew members? What dark thoughts does he have behind that glowing eye, and how long has he been thinking them? No one knows (*shudder*).
Okay, that’s not true. In later films and books in the series (primarily 2010: Odyssey Two), Clarke answers some of those questions by explaining HAL’s psychosis was the result of being programmed to report all information “without distortion or concealment,” while simultaneously being instructed to keep the existence of the Monolith on the moon a secret. A quick reboot, and HAL’s back to normal. And that’s okay. It robs 2001 of some of its mystery, but it also makes HAL lovable again. Like Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, who returns as mankind’s defender, HAL’s rehabilitation is part of his mystique, and his epic journey. If robots are going to take their rightful place at our side in coming generations, don’t they need a path to redemption, too?
Lt. Commander Data — Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paramount Television, 1987)
With Lieutenant Commander Data, the creation of Gene Roddenberry and D. C. Fontana, robots finally leveled up.
It’s not like robots weren’t members of spaceship crews before Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Marvin the Paranoid Android would (unhappily) attest. But they were mostly one-note characters, played for laughs, or whose primary function was to loudly inform Will Robinson of danger. They certainly didn’t get top billing. The hyper-anxious robot from Lost in Space didn’t even have a name, for cryin’ out loud. It was just called “Robot.”
But Data is a fully realized character with a long and satisfying story arc, with plenty of twists and drama. He’s forced to go on trial to prove he’s sentient and not merely Starfleet property (in “The Measure of a Man”); he finds—and loses—his family, in the form of his father/creator and an estranged brother, Lore (“Brothers”); he’s given a chip that enables him to feel emotion; and he proves to be the critical player in the defining battle against the cybernetic Borg (in Star Trek: First Contact).
Data is the first truly well-rounded robotic character in American cinema. Masterfully portrayed by actor Brent Spiner, Data is a one-of-a-kind creation. A robot capable of curiously, loyalty, friendship, courage, and all the things that make a character appealing, and yet clearly, recognizably a machine, Data isn’t merely a highly valued member of the finest crew in Starfleet. He is a landmark in robot fiction; a character for whom being a robot is only one aspect of his fascinating and appealing personality.
Robby the Robot — Forbidden Planet (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1956)
Although R. Daneel Olivaw appeared in print two years before Robby the Robot strode out across the alien landscape of Altair IV in Forbidden Planet, Robby was far more influential, in more ways than one. In fact, Robby the Robot is clearly the greatest robot of the mid-20th century. He was the first robot who was very clearly a machine, and yet simultaneously gifted with a unique and appealing personality.
He’s also a technological marvel, especially for 1956.
In fact, he was so innovative that American cinema refused to let him die, and he made appearances (without explanation) in numerous subsequent movies and TV shows, including The Invisible Boy (1957), The Thin Man, The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, and Lost in Space, and even Columbo (yes, Columbo).
Big, lumbering, and loud, Robby the Robot belongs to the Golden Age of Science Fiction, and in fact for decades he was the de facto poster child for science fiction, appearing on countless book and magazine covers. He still has fans today, and you can count me among them.
The Iron Giant — The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird (Warner Bros., 1999)
The 1999 Warner Bros. film The Iron Giant launched the career of Brad Bird, one of the most successful and influential directors of the 21st century (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol). In the nearly two decades since the release of the film, the Iron Giant has become a true icon of American cinema, and one of the most instantly-recognizable robots ever created. Like all icons, his image pops up everywhere, most recently in the 2018 Steven Spielberg hit film Ready Player One, where he squares off against Mechagodzilla. Because he’s a badass.
It’s interesting to compare The Iron Giant against others on this list, like Lt. Commander Data and R2-D2. Like R2-D2, the Iron Giant cannot speak, but wins our enduring affection because he is loyal and true to his friends.
But the reason that the Iron Giant tops this list, the reason that I believe he is the greatest science fiction robot ever created, is because of the essential difference between the Iron Giant and Data & R2-D2: The Iron Giant can love. It’s that love, and his unhesitating willingness to sacrifice himself for his young friend Hogarth, that allows the Iron Giant to do something that so few of his compatriots on this list have: transcend his limitations.
The Iron Giant is a machine, made of metal and wires. But in the closing minutes of The Iron Giant he becomes something far more: a hero for the ages, and an inspiration. Not just for other machines. But for us as well.
Runners Up
- Rossum’s Universal Robots (RUR, Karel Capek)
- Maschinenmensch (Metropolis)
- Humanoids (The Humanoids, Jack Williamson)
- Gyro Gearloose’s Little Helper (Uncle Scrooge comics)
- The Runaway Robot (The Runaway Robot, Lester Del Rey)
- The Robot (Lost in Space)
- Ultron (The Avengers)
- Bolos (Bolo, Keith Laumer)
- Doombots (Fantastic Four)
- Astro Boy
- The Bicentennial Man (“The Bicentennial Man,” Isaac Asimov)
- KITT (Knight Rider)
- Marvin the Paranoid Android (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
- Bishop (Aliens)
- Roy Batty & Pris (Blade Runner)
- Bender B. Rodriguez (Futurama)
- Optimus Prime (Transformers)
- Baymax (Big Hero 6)
- Maeve Millay (Westworld)
I can’t close out this list without saying a few words about some choice runners up.
Karel Capek started this whole thing off by introducing the word “robot” in his 1920 Czech play R.U.R. Before Robby the Robot became the poster child for mechanical men, that honor belonged to the alluring Maschinenmensch from Metropolis—by no means the only gendered robot on this list, but the only female gendered robot, which I think tells us a lot about how we view machines.
(In fact, that’s a topic that deserves a lot more discussion. Does it make sense for us to gender a machine with no reproduction organs or sexual identity? Hell no. So why the heck do we keep doing it? Why are so many sexless machines—from Robby the Robot to C3P0 to Optimus Prime—clearly, recognizably male? You can blame sexism or lazy writing if you like, and you probably wouldn’t be wrong, but I think that kinda misses the point. In truth I’m fascinated with the idea of gendered robots; I just think the whole concept has been grossly underdeveloped. If you’re going to make your machines recognizably male, why not go all the way? Why not give them a sexual identity? Sexual reproduction among animals has enormous evolutionary advantages; wouldn’t hyper-intelligent machines desire those same advantages? Two of my favorite characters in The Robots of Gotham are female machines, and it’s not because I wanted to give them curves and a sexy voice. I wanted to explore the fascinating idea—which so many, many fine writers have flirted with, from Lester del Rey’s Helen O’Loy, to Philip K. Dick’s Roy Batty and Pris in Blade Runner—of a gendered machine society. What would such a thing look like? What would it mean to switch genders with a simple change in programming? What would society look like if a gender fluid identity was the norm? But these are all topics for a wider discussion.)
During the Golden Age of SF writers like Jack Williamson, Lester del Rey, and especially Isaac Asimov did a lot to elevate robots from curiosities to full-fledged characters, with books like The Humanoids, The Runaway Robot, and I, Robot. Asimov returned to the theme throughout his career, in groundbreaking tales like his Hugo-award winning “The Bicentennial Man” from 1976.
Robots have played their part in comics in well, from the indestructible Astro Boy to Gyro Gearloose’s Little Helper, a tiny robot with a light bulb for a head. They’ve made especially great villains, including Dr. Doom’s loyal doombots, and the relentless Ultron.
Movies and TV have given us some of the most memorable robots of the past 80 years, including KITT from Knight Rider, Bishop from Aliens, Ulton (Avengers 2), Maeve and Dolores (Westworld), and of course Bender B. Rodriguez (Futurama), who just missed making the list.
I know I’ve missed more than a few. If you’ve got a favorite robot, give a shout out in the comments. Be sure to tell us what makes them so memorable.
Finally, I don’t claim to have any special knowledge about robots or machine intelligence. Nothing beyond a general certainty that robots and machine intelligences will become a growing part of our lives over the next years and decades. And just as science fiction helped pave the way for atomic power and space travel, today it is busily preparing the way for the coming of the machines.
Will they be friend or foe? I don’t think it takes any special insight to say with surety that they will be both. They will change the world, that’s for certain.
That’s their job.
Todd McAulty is the author of The Robots of Gotham, a novel of a near-future Chicago occupied by machines, and a small group of humans and robots who band together to resist… and who stumble on a secret America’s machine invaders are desperate to keep hidden. It was released by in hardcover by John Joseph Adams Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on June 19.
Justice of Toren, obviously.
To randomly pick one from dozens, the robotic butler Jenkins from Clifford D. Simak’s City.
The Runaway Robot’s name is Rex and he is the companion and minder of the young son of the governor of Ganymede. But when the family is transferred to Earth they sell Rex to a farmer. Rex tries to adjust to his new life but he has to see Paul, his charge, one last time. And it turns out Paul isn’t ready to let go either.
Rex finds himself in situations that way exceed his warranty, and having to make decisions and choices way above his computing power like conflicts between his programmed obligation to obey Paul and his equally important program to protect him. And he has to deal with the fact that existence just doesn’t seem worth it, if he’s parted from Paul.
But…but…Johnny Five is alive.
What, no love for the Berserkers? I mean, sure, they’re dedicated to the extermination of all life in the universe, and they are gigantic, sadistic killing machines, but c’mon, they deserve at least a mention.
I always wondered why Adams chose “Paranoid” for the adjective for Marvin, as he’s clearly more depressed than paranoid. It’s been long enough that I don’t recall if he specified this in the series.
@6
Paranoid Android sounds better than Depressed Android because of the rhyme.
Johnny Five, the little dudes from Batteries Not Included, the Shrike in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion, Blaine the Mono.
Questionable Content is a daily comic strip set in a world where robots are citizens with jobs, debts, criminal records, and romantic relationships (sometimes with humans).
And shout out to Opportunity and Curiosity in real life.
The thing about the Maschinenmensch (or False Maria) is that, to the best of my knowledge, there are no fully humanoid, but still clearly artificial robots (thus excluding robots who are just an actor with a bit of makeup or minor prosthetics) between her and C3-PO. That’s a span of 50 years where film robots took a pretty big step backwards.
The runner-up list is also missing Kryten from Red Dwarf.
Twiki from Buck Rogers (1970s)
Gendered robot: Ava from Ex Machina.
Check out this book, it’s about artificial intelligence.
Sea Of Rust by C. Robert Cargill.
Yes! Justice of Toren (from Leckie’s Ancillary Justice)
Let’s add in an old classic – Mycroft/Mike from Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Edit – On reflection, Mike is a computer rather than a bot – so may be outside the scope of the article.
the alluring Maschinenmensch from Metropolis—by no means the only gendered robot on this list, but the only female gendered robot
A slightly odd statement, given that your list also has Pris and Maeve Millay. (I don’t think the replicants of Blade Runner really qualify as robots, but that’s a side issue.)
There is a serious lack of HK-47 (Kotor) in this list, which was the original Murderbot with an erased past.
We’re leaving Red Dwarf off this list, for why? It gave us both Kryten and the Skutters. The latter are the inspired imps of legend who are there to help you… sort of, and the former is one of the great robotic comedy creations ever. Kryten, as played by Robert Llewelyn, is just perfect.
@1 & @12:
Justice of Toren, of course!
But I also got very fond of Athoek Station. There’s an AI who knows what’s what.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Silent Running.
Come on, man! Rosie from “The Jetsons”! *sigh* The help never get the praise they deserve.
Also, does anyone remember the movie “Space Camp”? The little robot Jinx was the hero of the movie! Granted, he also caused the trouble in the first place, but it came from a good place.
Lost in space?????????
GORT ..KLATU NICTO BARRADA
The Andromeda Ascendant, a.k.a. Rommie, from Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.
The Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex.
Kelex, the guardian of the Fortress of Solitude in the Post-Crisis DCU.
Gigantor!! I’m a little older than the average reader here. My earliest robot memory is from early black and white TV – the series Gigantor! Loved it!
BT from titan fall…and any of my mechwarrior friends.
All hail Robotech Defence Force!
Inspector Gadget
The robot from Laputa.
@1, @12 and @16:
> Justice of Toren, obviously.
> Yes! Justice of Toren (from Leckie’s Ancillary Justice)
> Justice of Toren, of course!
> But I also got very fond of Athoek Station. There’s an AI who knows what’s what.
OK, you’ve convinced me. I will read these books this weekend (well, at least the first one).
Another female gendered robot is del Rey’s Helen O’Loy.
And I love that the captcha asks me to prove I’m not a robot to comment on this article.
@2:
> the robotic butler Jenkins from Clifford D. Simak’s City.
You are absolutely right. Jenkins is a fine, noble robot with a good heart. He merited inclusion in the Runner-Up list, at the very least.
I love this list, but I can’t help but notice a troubling lack of Messrs. Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo.
@3:
> The Runaway Robot’s name is Rex and he is the companion and minder of young son of the governor of Ganymede…
Great to find a few more Runaway Robot fans out there! It was published in 1965 under Lester del Rey’s byline, but was largely ghostwritten by Paul W. Fairman. I got a copy from the Scholastic Book Club in the 70s, and loved the book so much I gave a copy to both of my sons as soon as they were old enough to read Chapter Books. The Runway Robot lives! He’s probably the coolest robot on this list to never wield a laser rifle.
Alex Brown reviewed the book for Tor.com back in February: https://www.tor.com/2018/02/01/classic-sf-for-young-readers-the-runaway-robot-by-lester-del-rey-and-revolt-on-alpha-c-by-robert-silverberg/
@6:
> What, no love for the Berserkers? I mean, sure, they’re dedicated to the extermination of all life in the universe, and they are gigantic, sadistic killing machines, but c’mon, they deserve at least a mention.
Fair enough! I was kinda going for individual robots on this list, and the berserkers are sorta nameless and faceless (literally).
But that’s a cop out. I loved the Berserker books when I was growing up, and they shoulda been included.
TOBOR ….his name is robot spelled backwards
@8:
> Questionable Content is a daily comic strip set in a world where robots are citizens with jobs, debts, criminal records, and romantic relationships (sometimes with humans).
Thanks for the tip. I checked it out and you’re absolutely right — this looks right up my alley.
> And shout out to Opportunity and Curiosity in real life.
Hear hear! Those two deserve their own list.
Would Tik-Tok from the original Oz series count here?
DemetriosX said:
> The thing about the Maschinenmensch (or False Maria) is that, to the best of my knowledge, there are no fully humanoid, but still clearly artificial robots (thus excluding robots who are just an actor with a bit of makeup or minor prosthetics) between her and C3-PO. That’s a span of 50 years where film robots took a pretty big step backwards.
?? Can that be true? I’d need to bring in Steve Carper or Rich Horton or some other genre expert to confirm, but I think you’re right. And if so, that’s a great point. Chalk up another landmark for the great Fritz Lang.
@29, I lost my first copy of Runaway Robot at some point between childhood and my present age but thanks to online book sellers I found an identical replacement not so long ago. It was amazing how much of the storyline had stuck with me.
Rosie from The Jetsons. My first favorite robot.
K-9 from Doctor Who (and I guess you can count the TARDIS as a robot too, it is sentient after all)
Sonny from I, Robot.
This list has made my day. I need to go to the library now…
hoopmanjh wrote:
> Twiki from Buck Rogers (1970s)
With the greatest of love…. no. Twiki is not one of the Greatest Science Fiction Robots of All Time. No.
> Gendered robot: Ava from Ex Machina.
Now here I agree with you. Ava (as chillingly portrayed by Alicia Vikander) is a superb example of a modern gendered robot, and I included her in my earlier list of the Top 10 Evil Robots in Science Fiction:
https://www.unboundworlds.com/2018/06/top-10-evil-robots-science-fiction/
I neglected her on because I didn’t want to repeat myself. But you’re right, she should have made the Runners Up list, which would have made her a second example of a gendered robot.
A dax wrote:
> Check out this book, it’s about artificial intelligence.
> Sea Of Rust by C. Robert Cargill.
I’ll second that! Cargill is a great writer, and I’ve heard a lot of great things about this book. If you love robots, it’s well worth a look.
RobMRobM wrote:
> Let’s add in an old classic – Mycroft/Mike from Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
> Edit – On reflection, Mike is a computer rather than a bot – so may be outside the scope of the article.
Fair call. If HAL 9000 can make the list, then so can Mike. Bonus points for including an intelligent machine from a classic novel. But I subtract points because I was never able to finish THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS.
PeterErwin wrote:
> the alluring Maschinenmensch from Metropolis—by no means the only gendered robot on this list, but the only female gendered robot
> A slightly odd statement, given that your list also has Pris and Maeve Millay.
You are absolutely right. Pris and Maeve were both late additions to my list, but I still should have caught that they screwed up my broad generalization. And as hoopmanjh notes above, Eva from EX MACHINA should have been included as well; she’s a superb example of a gendered robot. (So is Rosie from The Jetsons, come to think of it.)
So basically, my statement concerning the lack of female gendered robots didn’t given nearly enough credit to several authors and creators. I still think my central premise on the overwhelming preference for gendering robots male still holds, but I should have been more careful.
Sniper from Neil Asher’s Spatterjay and the inimitable Mr. Crane from Gridlinked and Brass Man.
For that matter, all of the named Golems from the Polity novels are quite interesting characters.
The Cyberiad (story collection) and additional stories by Stanislaw Lem concerning the adventures of Trurl and Klaupacius. And then there’s the real and the fake robots in the Ijon Tichy series of stories, also Lem.
@39, Really? The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is one of my favorite books. However I admit to a high tolerance for authorial lectures. Not high enough to take Ayn Rand though.
Mr Vandaleur’s unnamed robot in “Fondly Fahrenheit.” A bit dangerous in warm weather, but, heck,we all get cranky in the heat.
Don’t forget DotMatrix from Space Balls.
@34: todd_mcaulty: I really can’t think of any robots that fill that gap. There are some that are actors with very little makeup, like say Robert Culp’s character in Demon with a Glass Hand or some character who is ultimately revealed to be a robot, but between Maria and Threepio almost all movie robots are Robbie clones.
ETA: Oh, going through the comments, there was the obvious exception: Gort. He may not be as fully human as the two endpoints I mentioned, but he’s pretty close.
Sadly, you have missed my favorite robot from the golden age. The Proud Robot, as envisioned by C.L Moore and Henry Kuttner. (aka Lewis Padgett)
Also, Dick’s screamers. And Deckard / simulants. Wraithlords from Warhammer 40k and reavers from StarCraft. Marvin from Hitchhikers’ Guide. Hal from a Space Odyssey. The robot from Robot and Frank.
I mean, I hate to go all nerd troll on you, but the robots you’ve mentioned are kinda pop robots.
How about V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. from the 1979 Disney movie, The Black Hole?
Great article and great comments, everybody!
Nongendered robot: why are we all QUITE so sure that R2-D2 is gendered male? C-3PO uses the pronoun “he” for R2-D2, but are we jumping to conclusions by assuming that this is actually a gendered rather than a generalized pronoun in Basic being represented by English? In origin, R2-D2 is a military machine from a gender-balanced royal air force. And Basic is a language that has to be able to accommodate plenty of species with more than two genders (in book canon at least, both old and new). So I’m going to say that C-3PO really is gendered male because of the choice of voice generator he’s given, but that R2-D2 is nonbinary-gendered. (And so is BB-8. Poe probably thinks of BB-8 as male, but Poe is kind of a chauvinist. Yep, I just went there. [Ducks])
Looks like nobody remembers H.E.C.T.O.R. of Saturn 3
Good to see Atomic Robo high on the list–he is made of awesome!
And good to see fellow fans of The Runaway Robot here, one of my first SF books!
I’ll second the shout out for Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They’re the obvious predecessors of R2-D2. Louie’s last mission is the greatest film scene of robot pathos ever, or at least until the Iron Giant.
Also second the fondness for Joe the Proud Robot. Mix me a highball Joe!
Wikipedia tells me Fondly Fahrenheit was filmed for TV in 1959 and the show was nominated for a Hugo award. Rip Torn played the robot.
The Maschinenmensch wasn’t just the first female movie robot, but the first to express sexuality – carnal aggression, really. And still one of the only movie robots to do that.
Annalee Newitz’s exploration of robot gender was one reason why Autonomous was one of the best novels of the year.
1958s The Colossus of New York …Mechagodzilla…Robojox ..Bender….AND the one eye robot spider on Johnny Quest
Bet you guys don’t know about robot JOHN from voyage to the planet of prehistoric women………a planet of only women that worship a robot …I am a robot
I feel like the question “Why does he connect with us in a way that the fussy and fastidious C-3PO does not?” is actually missing out on the fact that C-3P0 and Anthony Stewart Daniels is actually a huge part of why we love Artoo. So much of R2-D2’s personality is actually conveyed to us entirely by the reactions of other characters, especially Threepio. Would we KNOW Artoo was funny if Threepio wasn’t scolding him for his bleeps and bloops being inappropriate? That he was brave if it wasn’t for Threepio complaining about how reckless he was? That he was universally beloved if Threepio weren’t having a panic attack when R2 broke and offering to donate all his own parts? It’s a subtle and fascinating form of… projected performance, I guess you’d call it.
18/36@phantomrose/Meghan P: Rosie was the one missing one I thought of. I think she was the first robot in my pop culture.
RobMRobM/todd_mcaulty@12/39: I love that book and the character of Mike, but do we really want to go down that road? If we do, then there’s Colossus, and the Allied Mastercomputer, and the Central Computer in Steel Beach. Not happy thoughts.
swampuyankee@34:
The robot of my nightmares. Very good call! I’d repressed this, sort of. Parts still surface out of context from time to time.
@53 That robot spider that Doctor Zin sent to attack Jonny Quest scared the snot out of me when I was a kid. That appendage that snaked out and zapped all the guards was creepy! That was one of the best episodes of one of the best shows ever.
Adam Link, robot by Eando Binder, twice filmed by “Outer Limits” as well as adapted by EC comics & Creepy.
@55, It’s the way Threepuo and Artoo play off each other that creates his character. There’s this wonderful slow dome turn as Threepio works to sell himself to Uncle Owen that speaks volumes.
@37 — When I mentioned Twiki, my tongue was pretty firmly planted in my cheek. Along similar lines, Muffit, the robot daggit from the original Battlestar Galactica.
I also have to say that rewatching Ex Machina after a couple years of #MeToo gave me an entirely different appreciation of Ava.
@13: Walker wrote
> There is a serious lack of HK-47 (Kotor) in this list, which was the original Murderbot with an erased past.
Excellent catch. I never completed any of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, but I’m well aware of Kotor fandom. He deserved a slot on the Runners Up list.
@@@@@9 — DemetriosX wrote
> The runner-up list is also missing Kryten from Red Dwarf.
and @@@@@15 — random22 wrote
> We’re leaving Red Dwarf off this list, for why?
Because I am woefully ignorant of RED DWARF, that’s why. If I weren’t catching up on Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice this weekend, I’m do a RED DWARF binge as penance.
Er…. speaking of which, is there an easy way to do that? Amazon? Netflix?
Ronald Short wrote:
> Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Silent Running.
OMG yes. I loved those little guys. I plead brain matter failure — it’s easily been 40 years since I watched this movie (on late night TV, if I remember correctly.) Maybe I can slip in a viewing between Leckie volumes this weekend.
phantomrose wrote:
> Come on, man! Rosie from “The Jetsons”! *sigh* The help never get the praise they deserve.
And Meghan P wrote:
> Rosie from The Jetsons. My first favorite robot.
You know, I thought of Rosie as I was putting together the Runners Up list, but she didn’t make the final list as a Greatest Robot of All Time. Maybe she should have.
Mmiller wrote:
> Lost in space?????????
I didn’t forget Lost in Space, at least. The Robot (yes, that’s his name…. The Robot) is on the Runners Up list, between THE RUNAWAY ROBOT and ULTRON.
Mmiller also wrote:
> GORT ..KLATU NICTO BARRADA
Okay. Now we come to what I consider the first serious omission on my Runners Up list. Gort, the inscrutable 8-foot robot from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, absolutely deserves a place of honor. At every science fiction convention I attended in my youth in the 70s, you’d hear that command phrase (for the record, “Klaatu barada nikto”) shouted in the hallways at least half a dozen times.
Definitely should have included him. Tsk. Thanks for the correction.
Gort deserves a place on the main list, certainly more than Atomic Robo, a robot I (and, I expect, most others here) have never heard of. Something I can’t say about anyone else on the OP or even in the comments.
Cybersnark wrote:
> The Andromeda Ascendant, a.k.a. Rommie, from Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.
> The Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex.
> Kelex, the guardian of the Fortress of Solitude in the Post-Crisis DCU.
All good picks. I admit I’m not too familiar with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, but of the other two, my favorite are the Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex. They’re a quirky bunch of robots with identity confusion, but they’re still oddly endearing. (And maybe gendered female? I never figured that out.)
Toohey wrote:
> Gigantor!! I’m a little older than the average reader here. My earliest robot memory is from early black and white TV – the series Gigantor! Loved it!
Whew. Now you’re even before my time. I’ve heard of Gigantor, but that’s about the limit of my knowledge. Wikipedia tells me “Gigantor is a 1963 anime adaptation of Tetsujin 28-go, a manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama released in 1956. It debuted on U.S. television in 1964.” The images strike a chord — wasn’t there a Marvel comic adaptation at one point? — but that’s all I got. Thanks for the suggestion!
Mmiller also wrote:
> BT from titan fall…and any of my mechwarrior friends.
> All hail Robotech Defence Force!
I’m a huge Mechwarrior fan (both the original FASA tabletop game and the various PC games), but they’re not robots? Maybe I should make a separate list for Coolest Mechs of All Time. For those confused by the distinction, robots are intelligent and autonomous, whereas mechs look like robots but usually have no mind of their own and need a human pilot.
BT from Titanfall is an interesting choice. He’s clearly a mech with a pilot, but ALSO an AI… bit of a crossover. TITANFALL 2 is an absolutely stompin’ game though, and that alone probably merits BT a mention. Good call.
As for Robotech Defence Force…. also mechs. But no less cool for all that.
My first introduction to robots was when I was 5 to Robby the robot from Fireball XL5 . Fast forward 40 years and I’m Makeing stop motion movies of a awesome collection of Revell Robotech models I’ve made.True mechs are not true robots but I believe we will see them before we see Ashley type robots from Alien. MAYBE THE HUMAN FACTOR should always remain…..remember Skynet! Great list everyone we all forget the robots that pop up here and there and you guys brought up some I haven’t seen in years. Thanks ….Commander Mike Miller Robotech Defence Force
How about Gerty from the film Moon? I love the way the situation it finds itself in challenges the limits of its programming like when it is at a loss on how to respond to a challenging question it often simply asks “Are you hungry?”
Nobody has mentioned the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. They’re as robotic as Blade Runner‘s replicants.
Less well known are Charles Stross’s androids in Saturn’s Children and Neptune’s Brood. Probably not best-robot-of-all-time material, but two great books nonetheless.
I realize he’s more of an original character from the movie than he is taken from Asimov’s Robot Lore, but… I really like Sonny from “I, Robot” with Will Smith. Sonny was a complex person, and IMO much more likable than Smith’s character, Detective Spooner. Due mostly to his portrayal by the inimitable Alan Tudyk
I’m surprised that nobody pointed out that Lt. Commander Data isn’t just gendered male, he’s “fully functional”.
(I wish they had explored that more, but they played it for laughs that one time and then ignored it.)
Data later experiments with a romantic relationship with a long time friend in the crew. She’s on board because she’s always liked Data and her previous romances have turned out badly. He wants to experience a new human relationship. Deanna is professionally worried because as she points out Data has no emotions but the woman could be hurt if she loses track of that fact.
Happily Data’s girlfriend proves more stable than that. She does not get emotionally involved and realizes they are both just going through the motions, it’s silly, and if they keep it up could hurt their friendship.
Whether or not those motions included sex is unexplored.
birgit wrote:
> Inspector Gadget
Inspector Gadget is a genius, and should have been included. I suck.
Steven H Silver wrote:
> Another female gendered robot is del Rey’s Helen O’Loy.
Hey Steven! I’m enjoying your daily science fiction Book Reviews at Black Gate.
I mentioned Helen O’Loy in the paragraph on gendered robots. Not really sure she qualifies as one of the Greatest Robots of All Time, and she didn’t make the cut for the list.
> And I love that the captcha asks me to prove I’m not a robot to comment on this article.
I think what’s really interesting is that it doesn’t really PROVE that you’re not a robot…
Cloudyvision wrote:
> I love this list, but I can’t help but notice a troubling lack of Messrs. Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo.
At the risk of alienating every Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan in the room…. I have to say that, as much as I love the show, they didn’t make the cut either. Awesome? Sure. Greatest Robots of All Time? Mmmmm.
Ace commenter Mmiller wrote:
> TOBOR ….his name is robot spelled backwards
A quick google search tells me Tobor the Great was the titular star of a 1954 Republic Pictures feature. OK, how did I not know about this? He looks AWESOME. When I find the fact-checkers responsible for overlooking Torbor, rest assured they will be sacked.
StoryCottage wrote:
> Would Tik-Tok from the original Oz series count here?
Yes! Tik-Tok was downright swell, and a classic in every respect. Thanks for the add!
princessroxana wrote:
> I lost my first copy of Runaway Robot at some point between childhood and my present
> age but thanks to online book sellers I found an identical replacement not so long ago.
> It was amazing how much of the storyline had stuck with me.
Glad you found a copy. I manged to replace my long-gone original on eBay 20 years ago. Your recall is far superior to mine. I remembered almost nothing of the story. But the cover sure stayed with me.
Meghan P wrote:
> K-9 from Doctor Who (and I guess you can count the TARDIS as a robot too, it is sentient after all)
You’re right, on both counts — and especially K9. It’s been more than 40 years since he began sharing the Doctor’s adventures, and he’s still popular, He should have made the runner’s up list.
> Sonny from I, Robot.
You’re not the only vote for Sonny. To be honest I totally forgot about him (the I ROBOT movie has not stayed with me). And if I hadn’t…. he still wouldn’t have made the list. I like Sonny. Will he be remembered fondly in 40 years, like K9? I have doubts.
> This list has made my day. I need to go to the library now…
Excellent. Can I ask what you’ll grab first?
Jonellin Stonebreaker wrote:
> Sniper from Neil Asher’s Spatterjay and the inimitable Mr. Crane from Gridlinked and Brass Man.
> For that matter, all of the named Golems from the Polity novels are quite interesting characters.
I’m familiar with Asher’s work, but I have to admit I haven’t read any of those novels. Sounds like I should though!
Hymie from Get Smart. He showed that a robot could be as stupid as the humans around him.
Why do most of the robots turn against humans? I think I’ll stick with a heavily armed mech! That’s how I roll
@75 Data’s dialogue with the Borg Queen in First Contact clearly implies that at some point a very precise interval of time before his interactions with her, Data has used his “special functions”. But he’s too much of a gentleman to give details.
@81, I have a very good memory for what I read. For my Real Life not so much.
mutantalbinocrocodile @49:
Nongendered robot: why are we all QUITE so sure that R2-D2 is gendered male?
Those are interesting points. Against that, I would put the fact that almost everyone in the original Star Wars who refers to R2 consistently says “he” or “him” (not just C-3PO), and even things like “you boys” (Luke, referring to both droids). For what it’s worth, the script consistently uses “he/his” for “Artoo” outside of the dialog as well.
There is a kind of non-gendered reference in the scene where Uncle Owen says, “Tomorrow I want you to take that R2 unit into Anchorhead and have its memory flushed. That’ll be the end of it. It belongs to us now.” But Luke consistently calls R2 “he” and “him” in the same conversation. (And no one refers to Princess Leia as “he”, which makes it harder to argue for “he” as translating a “generalized pronoun”…)
NancyP wrote:
> The Cyberiad (story collection) and additional stories by Stanislaw Lem
> concerning the adventures of Trurl and Klaupacius. And then there’s the
> real and the fake robots in the Ijon Tichy series of stories, also Lem.
Great suggestions! Stanislaw Lem is one of the greats, and criminally neglected these days. I bought a copy of The Cyberiad recently; shame on me for not having read it years ago.
Here’s one more for your awesome list Todd…look up Fyoder robot on the internet. A Russian gun user friendly terminator style robot to “only” be used in space…….rrright. Skynet here we come……..BT …….power up!
princessroxana wrote:
> Really? The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is one of my favorite books. However I admit to a high
> tolerance for authorial lectures. Not high enough to take Ayn Rand though.
On Ayn Rand, we are in total agreement.
swampyankee wrote:
> Mr Vandaleur’s unnamed robot in “Fondly Fahrenheit.” A bit dangerous in warm
> weather, but, heck,we all get cranky in the heat.
I’m a huge Alfred Bester fan, thought I admit “Fondly Fahrenheit” isn’t one of my favorite Bester stories. But the concept of an otherwise peaceful robot who becomes murderously deranged when he overheats is genius. I thought it strange that it was never adapted, but then I saw comment #52 from Matte Lozenge:
> Wikipedia tells me Fondly Fahrenheit was filmed for TV in 1959 and the show was
> nominated for a Hugo award. Rip Torn played the robot.
Took a little digging to get the details but, yes, it looks like “Fondly Fahrenheit” was adapted for the NBC Sunday Showcase broadcast “Murder and the Android,” scripted by Bester. Fred Pohl called it , “almost the only first-rate television play on a science fiction theme.” I’d love to see a still from the show, but no luck. Anyone know if there are copies out there?
Doc Scheib wrote:
> Don’t forget DotMatrix from Space Balls.
Ha ha! No.
DemetriosX wrote:
> Oh, going through the comments, there was the obvious exception: Gort. He may not
> be as fully human as the two endpoints I mentioned, but he’s pretty close.
Yeah, you are I both missed Gort. But I think your central point still holds firm: “there are [virtually] no fully humanoid, but still clearly artificial robots (thus excluding robots who are just an actor with a bit of makeup or minor prosthetics) between Maschinenmensch and C3-PO.” It’s an astonishing gap.
I have nothing to add here, other than this is a wonderful article and comment board. Thanks, everybody. Love me some robots!
Nearly 100 posts, and no one has mentioned Daleks? (Unless the fact that they have organic parts disqualified them.)
Fess, the starship/horse from Christopher Stasheff’s The Warlock in Spite of Himself. He shows up all through that series.
The Bolos. Keith Laumer’s intelligent tanks.
Karis has a point. Do cyborgs count?
If they do, how about all the brainships? The Ship Who Sang and such.
Dylan Brams wrote:
> Sadly, you have missed my favorite robot from the golden age. The Proud Robot,
> as envisioned by C.L Moore and Henry Kuttner. (aka Lewis Padgett)
Indeed I did. Kudos for remembering Moore and Kuttner’s Gallagher stories. They’re a lost classic if ever there was one.
For those interested, you can read the complete story “The Proud Robot” here:
http://www.prosperosisle.org/spip.php?article863
> Also, Dick’s screamers. And Deckard / simulants. Wraithlords from Warhammer 40k
> and reavers from StarCraft. Marvin from Hitchhikers’ Guide. Hal from a Space
> Odyssey. The robot from Robot and Frank.
I didn’t forget Marvin, the replicants from Blade Runner, or Hal (in fact Hal made the Top Ten, at #4). Some good additions here, but none that I’d personally list as the Greatest Robots of all Time.
> I mean, I hate to go all nerd troll on you, but the robots you’ve mentioned are kinda pop robots.
True enough. But that’s sort of a function of how I defined “Greatest” — those robots that have stayed popular for years.
Steve Simon wrote:
> How about V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. from the 1979 Disney movie, The Black Hole?
Errgh. Yeah, they were both pretty great robots, sure enough, but THE BLACK HOLE was not a great movie. I enjoyed it well enough at the time (1979), but anything with robots in it is cool when you’re 14.
Did I hear that Disney is remaking THE BLACK HOLE? I saw that Emily Carmichael (Pacific Rim Uprising) was tapped to write it.
Does it feel amusing to anyone else to have to tick “I am not a robot” to comment here. Also shouldn’t Marina Diamandis get a 5 cent royalty payment when we do that
#14 Had it right. There should be HK-47 on this list. Definitely the GOAT of the Star Wars Universe. R2D2 never once called bonus murders “freebies” and therefore, is not worthy to stand above HK-47.
@99 They ought to remake The Black Hole as an official Star Wars spin off movie. Disney so wanted that movie to be Star Wars (or maybe 2001, I feel like they couldn’t decide which they wanted to rip off more) so much, now they own SW they might as well commit to it. Personally, I loved the Maximilian robot myself; as evil robots go, that one was pretty evil cool. They couldn’t decide whether Maximilian was the primary villain or not too.
Yay Atomic Robo! Very high on my list of underappreciated comics.
@@@@@)100,
What is especially amusing is the implicit assumption that a robot would be either unwilling or unable to assert that it is not a robot. Robots, apparently, are honest men and women. And vice versa.
I’m a robot……I think……of course you are my bright little star………your magnetic ink .
Gotta dig that record out
Try searching Walt Whitman (Breaking Bad).
mutantalbinocrocodile wrote:
> why are we all QUITE so sure that R2-D2 is gendered male? C-3PO uses the pronoun “he” for
> R2-D2, but are we jumping to conclusions by assuming that this is actually a gendered rather
> than a generalized pronoun in Basic being represented by English? In origin, R2-D2 is a military
> machine from a gender-balanced royal air force. And Basic is a language that has to be able to
> accommodate plenty of species with more than two genders (in book canon at least, both old
> and new). So I’m going to say that C-3PO really is gendered male because of the choice of
> voice generator he’s given, but that R2-D2 is nonbinary-gendered.
Your logic is impeccable. I think it’s likely R2-D2 is gendered male mostly due to tradition, and not because any thought was put into it. I doubt there’s likely to be any changes to his gender by Disney at this point, but who knows?
ej wrote:
> Looks like nobody remembers H.E.C.T.O.R. of Saturn 3
HECTOR falls victim to the same problem as V.I.N.CENT from The Black Hole and Sonny from I, Robot. Namely, great robot, bad movie. Hard to truly be one of the greats if no one remembers you.
AlanBrown wrote:
> Good to see Atomic Robo high on the list–he is made of awesome!
> And good to see fellow fans of The Runaway Robot here, one of my first SF books!
Atomic Robo is a national hero.
I’m kinda surprised (in a good way) how many folks remember Rex from THE RUNAWAY ROBOT. He made a huge impact on me. Maybe he should have been higher on the list.
And a vote for Tobor the 8th Man, from a Japanese anime series that came out near the time Astro Boy did. The 8th man is the 8th robot in a series of robots, and is assigned duties helping the police. He often had to recharge using tubes that looked like cigarettes. He was also a shape-shifter, changing to look like various other people.
Matte Lozenge wrote:
> I’ll second the shout out for Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They’re the obvious
> predecessors of R2-D2. Louie’s last mission is the greatest film scene
> of robot pathos ever, or at least until the Iron Giant.
Totally agree that they were clearly inspirational for STAR WARS. SILENT RUNNING’s director, Douglas Trumbull, turned down George Lucas’ offer to head up ILM as he was creating Star Wars.
> The Maschinenmensch wasn’t just the first female movie robot, but the first
> to express sexuality – carnal aggression, really. And still one of the only movie
> robots to do that.
Agreed (in fact, I’m coming up blank on any other examples, although I’m sure there have to be some.)
> Annalee Newitz’s exploration of robot gender was one reason why Autonomous was one of the best novels of the year.
Another excellent reason why I need to read Autonomous (like I needed another one). It goes to the top of the TBR pile.
Thanks for the comments!
The closest thing I can think of with a robot showing carnal aggression would be The Demon Seed.
Another great robot that no one has mentioned is Box from Logan’s Run. OK, there’s some suggestion that he might be a cyborg, but he’s been around for centuries, so much of him could possibly be organic? “Fish, plankton, sea greens… protein from the sea!” All in Roscoe Lee Brown’s gorgeous voice.
Definitely Justice of Toren and the various AIs from Questionable Content.
Also, EDI from Mass Effect.
If HAL can make the list, so should Myk (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress)
Yes! I’ll echo Dylan Brams, and Joe, the vain transparent robot in Lewis Padgett’s (Henry Kuttner’s) “The Proud Robot” (Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1943), reprinted as the lead story in “Robots Have No Tails” (Gnome Press, 1952), the collection of Kuttner’s Galloway Gallegher stories.
“Are you going to keep quiet?” the robot demanded from its post before the mirror.
Brock jumped. Gallegher waved a casual hand. “Don’t mind Joe. I just finished him last night, and I rather regret it.”
“A robot?”
“A robot. But he’s no good, you know. I made him when I was drunk, and I haven’t the slightest idea how or why. All he’ll do is stand there and admire himself. And sing. He sings like a banshee. You’ll hear him presently.”
[…]
“The hell you will,” Gallegher snarled. “I’ll smash you to atoms.”
“All right. I don’t care.”
“You don’t?”
“You and your instinct for self-preservation,” the robot said, rather sneeringly “I suppose it’s necessary for you, though. Creatures of such surpassing ugliness would destroy themselves out of sheer shame if they didn’t have something like that to keep them alive.”
“Suppose I take away your mirror?” Gallegher asked, in a hopeless voice.
For answer Joe shot his eyes out on their stalks. “Do I need a mirror? Besides, I can vasten myself lokishly.”
“Never mind that. I don’t want to go crazy for a while yet. Listen, dope, a robot’s supposed to do something. Something useful, I mean.”
“I do. Beauty is all.”
Gallegher squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think. “Now look. Suppose I invent a new type of enlarger screen for Brock. The Tones will impound it. I’ve got to be legally free to work for Brock, or—”
“Look!” Joe cried squeakishly. “They go round! How lovely!” He stared in ecstasy at his whirring insides. Gallegher went pale with impotent fury.
“Damn you!” he muttered. “I’ll find some way to bring pressure to bear. I’m going to bed.” He rose and spitefully snapped off the lights.
“It doesn’t matter,” the robot said. “I can see in the dark, too.” The door slammed behind Gallegher. In the silence Joe began to sing tunelessly to himself.
If the brainships and Mycroft can make the list, then so can all of the mindships from Iain Banks Culture novels.
Also, Cassandra Kresnov (and friends/enemies) from Joel Shepherd’s Crossover (and sequels).
ABC Warriors.
Jeeves, the butler (and trainer of baby artificial intelligences) in the Liaden Universe
Ian Tregillis’s the Alchemy Wars (The Mechanical, The Rising and The Liberation) has a wonderful, conflicted robot character in Jax. He may be a slave but he will be free
Fembots in the 1970’s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman:
http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Fembot
The Daleks, the Cybermen and the Borg would all be disqualified due to being more cyborg than robot, I think.
British weekly comics gave us Robot Archie – a true classic.
I’ve seen no mention of any of the synths from the brilliant recent TV series, HUMANS, or indeed the original Swedish version, REAL HUMANS (Äkta människor). These were very definitely gendered.
I would think the Daleks, the Cybermen (and the Borg for that matter) would be disqualified due to being cyborgs, rather than robots. In fact the Daleks are more like alien creatures in tanks.
Robot Archie first appeared in Lion Issue #1 in February 1952, and is probably the longest running and best loved robot character in British comics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Archie
I’m amazed that no one seems to have mentioned the synths from the superb, TV show, HUMANS (2015) or indeed the original Swedish version, REAL HUMANS (Äkta människor) (2012). In this case, they are most definitely gendered, and fully functional.
Humans
Real Humans
I wouldn’t put Gort in the also rans, I’d put him in the main list!
I know what you mean, but Ultron was originally from comics, not the movies.
Seconding (or “thirding”, etc.) the following omissions:
● Johnny Five (from Short Circuit, 1986 film) (@8. olethros6)
● The Andromeda Ascendant, a.k.a. Rommie (Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda (TV, 2000-2005) (@21. Cybersnark)
● Fess, the starship/horse (from Christopher Stasheff’s The Warlock in Spite of Himself series) (@97. Fernhunter)
(However, Fernhunter, I would not include McCaffrey’s brainships, since their brains are fully human.)
● Sonny (from I, Robot, 2004 film) (@73. Pufnstuff)
● Rosie (from The Jetsons, TV, produced 1962-1963) (@18. phantomrose, @36. Meghan P)
Additions of my own, in the surprisingly random order I thought of them:
● No one yet has mentioned Orvis, from H.M. Hoover’s 1987 eponymous middle-grade/YA planetary adventure. He’s a decommissioned, “dangerous” robot given the command to take himself to the dump then permanently shut down, but varied previous owners have exposed his learning capabilities to human philosophy, literature, etc., and he winds up protecting two children stranded in the wilderness, instead.
● Lovelace/Sidra (from A Closed and Common Orbit, 2017, by Becky Chambers) is an AI, given a highly illegal human body and forced to adjust in many ways to her new, organic existence.
● Jeeves, the Clan Korval butler/head of security from Sharon Lee & Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe, has a 3-armed, wheeled, hand-built body, but a salvaged, ancient AI, from an “Independent Armed Military Module”, for a brain (located not in his glowing “head”, but in his torso, IIRC). Also, the spaceship Bechimo, introduced later in the same world, is another independent logic (i.e., free AI).
Ah, @117. Robin named Jeeves (i.e., visually beat me to it), but I was busy drafting my post (including Jeeves), and hadn’t seen the latest additions yet.
Re. @36. Meghan P’s “I guess you can count the TARDIS as a robot too, it is sentient after all.” :
Hmmmm, I’ll have to think about that! You have a point, but the only time we interacted with “her” directly and verbally, her consciousness was in a humanoid body (one of my favorite episodes, BTW), so it hadn’t occurred to me.
Also re. Doctor Who, I was going to ask Todd McAulty why, if androids and such were considered for inclusion, the Cybermen aren’t here at all, but then I read @30, where he explains, “I was kinda going for individual robots on this list, and the berserkers are sorta nameless and faceless (literally).” Same with the Cybermen. (The Daleks are organic creatures in mobile armor, period, hence not applicable at all, despite their robotic voice transponders.)
The new BSG’s humanoid Cylons, OTOH, surely merit inclusion! (@72. David Miller)
@37. todd_mcaulty: I have to confess, Buck Rogers’ Twiki drove me nuts, even as a kid. Agreed: “Greatest”, not!
Re. gendering, hard metal parts and lack of emotionality are definitely slanted more yang than yin, but especially in the less stiffly “robotic” robots, there s/b more female depictions.
One thing that struck me as curious was that a couple times when I was reading the first Murderbot story, I caught myself thinking of Murderbot using feminine pronouns, though it’s actually genderless, and if anything, military/security bots are usually gendered male. It’s probably a matter of identification with the protagonist (hey, an antisocial adventure-SF fan is not so big a stretch, LOL!), and I’m female, making that my default.
@55. Nelly Dreadful :
Absolutely! R2 is still clearly loyal, etc., but w/o those insights, we’d probably just say, “Well, he’s programmed to be!”
The mini spaceships of *Batteries Not Included (1987 film) (@8. olethros6) aren’t the “greatest”, but worth a mention as another voiceless but appealing group.
Well, that’s about enough from me! If I think of some further appallingly overlooked character, I can always come back.
No love for video game robots? I have to second Walker’s nomination of HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic. Keeping with unfriendly robots, GLaDOS from Portal is an obvious choice.
Or if friendly robots are more your thing, how about Nick Valentine from Fallout 4 – who doesn’t love a time-displaced gruff detective robot with a heart of gold?
I’d also like to nominate every robot in Prey but going into detail would involve spoilers for a game that way too many people haven’t played.
From games that even less people have played, Loaderbot and Gortys from Tales from the Borderlands.
There are more, of course, but I’ll stop here. Man, robots are great! (Also I feel a little bit weird about having to prove I’m not a robot to post about how much I love robots.)
The self- and politically-aware golems of Terry Pratchett’s Diskworld. Magic-based to be sure, but robots nonetheless. Strong, large-minded, politely self-assertive clay robots.
How about Talos, the Bronze Man of Crete? Jason and his crew met him on their way home from Colchis.
Talos is a tale of how, for want of a nail, the robot was lost.
Well their not as cool as”sharks with lasers” but the Fembots with machine gun jubblys……grrrr….groovy baby groovy
And as much as they have worn out the franchise (don’t attack me diehard fans I’m an original first trilogy fan) as they have done with Star Wars …..the transformer robots ARE pretty cool.everyday machines that are really robots had never been done before….unique I must say….and don’t slice me in two with your lightsaber I love Star Wars…but let’s let it age like fine wine…..enough already.I’m not sure any other movie has had so many seeeeeeeeeequels
Don’t forget Mechani-Kong….cheesy sci-fi movies really do rock!
Before Data, there was another Gene Roddenberry creation: Questor.
I know he was always a niche writer but has John Sladek been completely forgotten?
Two of the title characters from his novels are memorable robots. Tik-Tok is a satire about a robot whose “Asimov circuits” malfunction, allowing him to harm humans. And he finds he really likes harming humans.
But his masterpiece is Roderick features a robot who is sort of the opposite–the sweetest robot in the world, especially in comparison to humans who tend to be petty, self-absorbed, or just plain mean. Or trying to kill him. His response to the fear that robots might get so intelligent they decide to simply wipe out humanity captures his character in a nutshell: “Suppose they get so intelligent they see the futility of wiping out species?”
I think that we as a species..that have the technology to very soon reproduce ourselves should be very careful how we do thisi I lean more towards physical than mentally . We have a long way to go before we should start reproducing our caveman mentality and installing it into fresh cyborg circuits it hasent happened yet “or has it” ……DONT EVER FORGET SKYNET
HAL 9000 isn’t a robot. He has no mobility. He is a computer.
@133 What about those massive bloody rockets he had on his arse in order to move him to Saturn Jupiter? Not to mention all those pod bay doors he could open but chose not to. HAL has thousands of mobile parts, hundreds of thousands. HAL is a big robot whom humans happen to be able to live in, but a robot nonetheless.
If HAL & Mycroft can make the list, what about JARVIS – Tony Stark’s snarky AI? I would love to have JARVIS running my house…or keeping my life in order for me. That he sacrificed himself to defeat Ultron really bums me out – Vision is OK, but JARVIS was better.
Anybody ever read 2000 AD.
ABC WARRIORS.
Mark wrote:
> I know he was always a niche writer but has John Sladek been completely forgotten?
Not by me he hasn’t.
John Sladek was an American SF writer who never really made it big in the US. He died in 2000, but his books have been out of print in the US since the 80s. (Strangely enough, he’s more popular in the UK, and Gollancz has kept most of his work in print there, with two handsome omnibus editions in the last few years, including The Complete Roderick.)
I like Sladek a lot, but based on the criterion set for this list (robots that have captured the public’s imagination for decades), sadly he doesn’t make the cut.
pjcamp wrote:
> HAL 9000 isn’t a robot. He has no mobility. He is a computer.
Sure, fair enough. But that’s why I said my list includes “man-made artificial intelligences of all kinds.” Machine intelligences come in so many diverse forms that the distinction between ‘computer’ and ‘robot’ starts to seriously blur after a while.
Eloise wrote:
> If HAL & Mycroft can make the list, what about JARVIS – Tony Stark’s snarky AI?
I was a little grumpy that the Marvel movies turned Jarvis into an AI, rather than the genial and constantly put-upon Avengers butler from the comics, but I admit he did start to grow on me after a few Iron Man films. So I concur… Jarvis probably should have made the Runners Up list.
Colin wrote:
> Anybody ever read 2000 AD.
> ABC WARRIORS.
Love the ABC Warriors! And for sure, they should have been included. Good catch!
Angela wrote:
> No love for video game robots? I have to second Walker’s nomination of HK-47
> from Knights of the Old Republic. Keeping with unfriendly robots, GLaDOS from
> Portal is an obvious choice.
> Or if friendly robots are more your thing, how about Nick Valentine from Fallout 4
> – who doesn’t love a time-displaced gruff detective robot with a heart of gold?
Great picks. GLaDOS in particular is one of the greatest evil robots ever created, and I gave her a place of honor in my earlier list of The Top 10 Evil Robots in Science Fiction:
https://www.unboundworlds.com/2018/06/top-10-evil-robots-science-fiction/
I might have included Nick Valentine and the Prey robots, if I’d ever played Fallout 4 or Prey. I’m falling down on my research, I can see that. To the games library! (And thanks for the suggestions.)
Don’t forget E.V.E. Wall-Es girlfriend.I almost cried when they were blasting around in space with a fire extinguisher.so in love!
@142: Fair enough! Although really, a vote for Wall-E is a vote for E.V.E. Those kids belong together.
I hope none of us forgot the Stepford wives ,gunslinger Yul Brenner from westworld. The monstrous Kronos from 1957. Let’s hope we never see Johnnycab from total recall.
Hymie from get smart.Nomad from star trek. MEGAZORD from power rangers. And my personal bodyguard (don’t point a gun at him) ED-209……bad to the bone!
HEARTBEEPS, with Bernadette Peters and Andy Kaufman. A very sweet movie indeed.
And let’s not forget Baymax, the diagnostic and healer robot from BIG HERO SIX. Yes, he’s a big softie, but he’s still a bot.
@141 – ah, if we’re talking about evil robots (and AIs count) then I’d definitely through AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream on this list. That imagery stayed iwth me for years.
I must admit, I am very much a Threepio fan, although K2-SO and L3-37 are both huge favorites of mine.
Gendering robots – especially ones like Artoo which don’t even have a humanoid form – is interesting, come to think of it. I suppose it cuts into the sex/gender discussion – robots don’t reproduce with each other, so in that sense, biological gender is meaningless (although I suppose you could then throw attraction in here and think about Data being ‘fully functional’, to say nothing of L3’s claims…). Now, for a robot like Threepio which interacts with sentient/sapient beings, it will also have some kind of traits or social ‘gender’. But then one has to think about droids programmed in other cultures and species – what kinds of gender characteristics do THEIR droids have?
In the real world, I do find it kind of interesting/telling that things like Siri, Alexa, GPS voices, etc are pretty much predominantly female. If a roomba had a voice it would probably be female as well.
I just wish there had been some more iconic LOOKING robots recently. Only BB8 from The Force Awakens has really had a distinctive and iconic LOOK to him. Most of the other recent robots have been seriously generic looking. Where are the great robot designers right now?
One bad robot that looks like none other is the 1957 sci-fi movie Kronos check it out…also don’t forget Codsworth from Fallout 4 xbox one. Soon in the future instead of gender voices (male or female) your neurotransmitter will form thought patterns directly to your brain eliminating voices altogether. This concept gives me a headache…….oh the pain ..the pain
Just finished your book and I adore Black Winter. (Can’t believe he’d use “data” as a singular noun, though.) I hope we’ll see more of him in the future.
@123 Diane_D: I had the same experience with MurderBot as you did – Murderbot struck me as female and I continue to keep thinking of it with female pronouns. I don’t know whether I’m projecting my own gender or the author’s. My (male) partner had no problem sustaining a sense of Murderbot as genderless.
No one mentioned TARS from Interstellar
I came across this while searching for comparisons of my favorite android. SyFy’s “Dark Matter” (2015-2017) available on Netflix features Zoie Palmer as, “Android”. Her performance combines Terminator emotionless expression with Robo-Cop’s not quite human movement with Data’s childlike outlook (sans the Pinocchio shtick). All compellingly packaged in a manner that gives us this moment of gendered mechanismen self discovery:
https://youtu.be/-C1IUnv2AxU
I look forward to your thoughts.
@76 /Todd McAulty – to be fair, I always thought of Inspector Gadget as a cyborg. He has a niece, after all.
Does Frankenstein’s Monster count? The spare parts he’s made out of are organic, not mechanical, but he still needed to be assembled…
@@@@@ 154, WillMayBeWise
Does Frankenstein’s Monster count? The spare parts he’s made out of are organic, not mechanical, but he still needed to be assembled…
Capek’s original robots were organic. Made in factories, too. I think you’re safe.
Voltron
Good old ULTRAMAN….maybe not a full robot but ULTRACOOL
Hal 9000 is a computer that goes rogue, its not a Robot :)
How could you list the B9 as an also-ran? :(