The chief advantage of artificial servants, be they golems or robots or animated brooms, is their perfect obedience. Tell them to do a thing, and they will do it. Unfortunately, perfect obedience is subject to the principle of Garbage In, Garbage Out. Flawed instructions will be followed to the letter, leading to unexpected results. Failure on the master's part to define their terms leads to confusion at best, and at worst, tragically mistaken assumptions. And, as any sorcerer's apprentice can tell you, neglecting to define an end point can be disastrous.
The main problem with your bog-standard artificial servant is, it was born yesterday. Most of the story's wacky hijinks will ensue from that.
Cover art credits: "Office Chair 1.1" by Gerwin Sturm (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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Electing a Chair (excerpt)
Truyện NgắnWhat were Assets? What was Espionage? What was a Committee? (Friday Fictionette for February 9, 2018)
