![8 Part I: Images
graphic areas, there were regional and cultural differences within this category. Chil-
dren in South Africa, India, and Latin America were more likely than those in Europe,
Australia, and North America to anthropomorphize computers – to imagine them as
friends or teachers that could share their experiences or help in the accomplishment
of a goal (see Figure 1.1d).
Twenty-six percent of the children proposed ideas that facilitated sharing with
others, such as friends, teachers, parents, and even the robot (figure 1.1d). In the inter-
view about her drawing, a seven-year-old girl from the United States said, “I want to
video kids on the other side of the world using a different kind of language.”
The category identified as “confers ability/knowledge” addresses the study ques-
tion: How can we engage children as authors and inventors of future technology,
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
I want a computer that talks to me when I’m play-
ing my games. It helps me build adventures of my
own, and avoid obstacles in the game.
My daughter would like a computer that talked
with her like a friend, so that they could share
things like friends. [translation]
My son wishes the computer was a robot he could
take everywhere with him – to play chess with him
or soccer outside... in other words,he wants it to
be a friend he can share with his other friends
[translation]
The computer becomes 3-dimensional and,
instead of a keyboard, it’s controlled by voice.
[translation]
Figure 1.1: Images of future technology; (a) boy, U.S.; (b) girl age 11, Denmark; (c) parent, girl age 7,
Argentina; (d) parent, boy age 7, Colombia](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-26-320.jpg)
![10 Part I: Images
IV Robots
The study described in this section examines stories and drawings of children about
robots in educational and personal settings. The foundations for this research can be
found in the study described in Section III and prior work on children’s responses to
robots.
A Prior research
Some research on children and robots examines the “uncanny-valley” response by
children. The uncanny-valley response was proposed in an essay by Masahiro Mori in
1970. Mori hypothesized that humans respond positively to robots until they become
almost human-seeming in both appearance and behavior. At that point responses
plunge into what Mori called the “uncanny valley.” He further conjectured that once
android design becomes isomorphic with humans, reactions to them will, once again,
become more positive. MacDorman and Ishiguro (2006) observed children interacting
with androids and observed age differences with regard to the phenomenon. Woods
and Dautenhahn (2006) surveyed children’s assessments of 40 images of androids
varying in appearance from those that closely resembled humans (“human-like”) to
those that were more machine-like in appearance (“human-machine”). The children
rated each robot image on appearance, personality, and emotion. The researchers
found that “children judged human-like robots as aggressive, but human–machine
robots as friendly” (Woods and Dautenhahn 2006:1390). Both sets of researchers
conclude that children exhibit the uncanny-valley effect and that designers of robots
need to take it into account when designing robots for education.
Other research has examined children’s responses to robots more generally. Tung
and Chang observed children’s responses to robots ranging in both anthropomorphic
appearance and in social behaviors, including speech. They determined that “Chil-
dren perceive robots are more socially and physically attractive when they exhibit
sufficient social cues” (Tung and Chang: 2013:237). The effect of social behaviors
appeared to apply to highly anthropomorphic robots as well as to those that are less
human-like. Although some of their findings differ from those of Woods and Dauten-
hahn, they make similar recommendations for the design of robots for education:
“Middle- to low-level anthropomorphic designs combined with appropriate social
cues can enhance children [sic] preferences and acceptance of robots” (Tung and
Chang: 2013:237).
A few studies have focused specifically on acceptance of various kinds of lan-
guage. Looija, Neerincx, and de Lange (2008) surveyed 8 and 9 year-old children
after they interacted with three bots: a text interface, a virtual character and a physi-
cal robot. They found that the children enjoyed the virtual and physical bots more
than the text interface. They rated the physical robot as being the most fun. Mubin](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-28-320.jpg)
![14 Part I: Images
The robots are humanoid peers with whom the children can identify and/or emulate.
The robot drawing in figure 1.4a is one of the clearest pictorial representations of
this but nearly two-thirds of stories revealed that the children take for granted that
robots can be both friends and study buddies. This duality is closely linked to the
blending of learning with play and is represented as both natural and expected. The
examples in figure 1.4 as well as those in figures 1.2c and 1.3b exhibit this relation-
ship duality.
(a)
(c)
(b)
(d)
Larry [the robot] said to me, ‘Look, maths is an
important part of your life and you will be using it
a lot in the future. If you don’t do maths now with
me I won’t be a close friend.’ I said, ‘Ok I will do
it,’ so we raced each other with multiplication
and he won but I got a better score than I got at
school. Every time we did it I got better and
started to kind of like maths. When we finished, I
said to Larry, ‘Thanks for caring about me.’
When I got to school this morning, my teacher
surprised me by giving me a robot to help me with
my schoolwork. We played football at recess with
my friends. In class, he wrote for me and helped
me to think. Leaving school he carried my bag
and transformed into a bike. When we got home
he prepared my snack and helped me do my
homework. He created books for me to read, and
we played with toy cars. He keeps my secrets. I
can tell him anything, and he gives me advice.
[translation]
I have a few problems in spelling. The robot shall
support me and help me improve until I am at the
same level as my classmates. The teacher tells
the robot where my problems are. The robot is
looking for one of his many stored programs and
dictates to me. I write what he says and correct it.
He can also wrinkle his forehead when something
is not right. He continually encourages me even
when I have not done so well. [translation]
My group finished its work before class ended, so
my teacher let us leave early with the robot. I am
overcome with joy and I play with him. But my
friends are jealous so I lend them him (but not
always). We are happy that he is with us and we
have a good time. He helps us with building
problems, like building models. Or scientific and
alchemical problems. He can fly, drive, run and
walk, of course. [translation]
Figure 1.2: Intersections between learning and play; (a) girl age 11, Australia; (b) boy age 11, France;
(c) boy age 10, France; (d) girl age 10, Germany](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-32-320.jpg)
![1 My robot 15
(a) (b)
RJ is a cool dude robot. He looks like a transformer
robot, and with a clickof a button he shows me his
screen. It then looks like a laptop. I may type my
work into the laptop, instead of writing. Then RJ
fixes my spelling, and tells me when my sentence
is wrong. That way the teacher does not see all the
mistakes, but can see how good my idea is.
The robot is like a new friend for me. It helps me
with my homework. It can do it much better than
my parents because it knows exactly how to
explain the lessons to a kid like me. The robot is
very smart and can answer a lot of questions for
me and tell me interesting stories. He always
reminds me of all possible things, which I would
have otherwise forgotten. [translation]
Figure 1.3: Intersections between learning and creativity; (a) boy age 12, South Africa; (b) boy age 9,
Germany
Even though their robots are humanoid in many ways, the children describe them
as being clearly different from humans. The robot in figure 1.5a is metallic and has
a funny voice; the one in figure 1.5b is small and has batteries in its “hair,” and the
robots in figures 1.2c and 1.3a have remarkable transformer abilities. As those figures
also show, that mentioning how a robot differs from human children is often accom-
panied by statements that the children have fully accepted the robot as part of their
social group.
(a) (b)
The robot helps you with the homework and then
he plays with you. My parents were happy that
they now no longer had to help me with the
homework... [translation]
When I get home, my robot helps me with my
homework. ...It could do everything—play soccer,
build Legos, read, do math, write and all the
movements a person can make. Since my parents
really are always at work a lot, they can’t always
help me or play with me or cook something. Now
the robot helps them with that. [translation]
Figure 1.4: Dual friend and study-buddy relationships; (a) boy age 10, Germany; (b) boy age 9,
Germany](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-33-320.jpg)
![16 Part I: Images
(a) (b)
My teacher treated my robot just like she was a
real human student. My friends treated my robot
like a human, too. She is friendly and funny and
she fits in with all of us. No one would ever know
that she is a robot except that she is made of
metal and does not have skin. She is really smart
and everyone likes to talk to her. She has a funny
voice, but we do not tease her.
At school, this robot helped or played with
everyone near me. Everyone was a little scared at
the start but accept the presence of this new
‘friend.’ He speaks, walks, moves like us but is
smaller. He helps me with my work and is
recharged using little solar batteries in his ‘hair.’
He helpswith everydayproblems, mum overworked
with her job and the house (making meals). He
winks his eye when we share a secret. [translation]
Figure 1.5: Role models and caretakers; (a) girl age 8, U.S.; (b) girl age 11, France
One reason for the social acceptance of robots is that they excel in social skills as well
as in intelligence. They are funny, clever, and other children enjoy talking and playing
with them. They possess an enviable ability to fit in with others and to navigate their
peer environments, in part, because they are smart. Thus, social and learning aspira-
tions are closely linked. That is, being perceived as intelligent creates social oppor-
tunities, giving children a solid motivation to learn. This is a category that applies to
study question 1 as well because social and interpersonal adeptness enable robots to
be effective and supportive teachers. The robot described in figure 1.3b, for example,
knows exactly how to explain anything to the child. Many of the robots also know
how to motivate and encourage the children.
Children not only characterized their robots as being like humans, they were
often portrayed as “nerds.” This representation was positive in nature and had none
of the social stigma it had in the past. This favorable view of scholarship and intelli-
gence is, no doubt, also true in the real world (sans robots) for today’s digital natives.
In the stories, therefore, robots illuminated the value currently placed on intelligence
and technological skill.
An associated thread that winds through the stories is that robots are ideal
incarnations of teachers and parents. They are available whenever they are needed,
they have infinite patience, they always know how to solve problems, and they can
effectively and easily communicate their knowledge to the children. For example,
Larry the robot (figure 1.2a) first scolds and then helps because it “cares” about the
child.
None of these conditions are possible for the humans in a child’s life. This fact
is clearly expressed in some of the children’s stories about their robots who become
caretakers in addition to their other roles. This can be seen in comments made in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-34-320.jpg)
![References 19
important aspect of future technology – as a way for technology to become more
human and enhance interpersonal connections.
In the second study we asked children to write a story about a robot that would
serve as their personal robot. We found that for these digital natives the boundary
between humans and machines is blurred. They view robots as peers – friends, study-
buddies, and even caretakers – rather than tools. Their robots are always available to
provide patient, personalized instruction and to communicate in ways that encour-
age children to persist, succeed, and be creative. The stories about those robots also
reveal that, unlike in the real world, boundaries between learning and play are fluid
or may not exist at all.
These findings provide important guidance to educators and technology devel-
opers. The overarching message provided by the children in this study is that educa-
tors and developers need to transform educational technology into truly collaborative
systems that are capable of supporting the social, personal, and educational needs of
young children. These systems should recognize and exploit the willingness of chil-
dren to see learning as play. Such systems may or may not include robots but they do
need to possess intelligence, sensitivity, and excellent social-interaction skills.
Acknowledgements
Latitude would like to thank our partners in this project: Lego Learning Institute and
Project Synthesis for their work and other contributions to this research.
References
Hanington, B.M. and Martin, B. (2012) Universal Methods of Design: 100 ways to research complex
problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Minneapolis, MN USA:
Rockport Publishers.
Hanington, B.M. (2007) ‘Generative Research in Design Education.’ in International Association of
Societies of Design Research 2007: Emerging trends in design research 2007 [online]. held
12–15 November 2007 at Hong Kong, China. available from http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/iasdr/
proceeding/html/sch_day2.htm. [1 June 2014].
Latitude Research (2012) Robots @ School [online] available from http://latd.tv/Latitude-Robots-at-
School-Findings.pdf. [5 June 2013].
Latitude Research (2010) Children’s Future Requests for Computers & the Internet, Part 2 [online].
available from http://latd.tv/children/childrenTech.pdf. [5 June 2013].
Light, J., Page, R., Curran, J. and Pitkin, L. (2007) ‘Children’s Ideas for the Design of AAC Assistive
Technologies for Young Children with Complex Communication Needs.’ Augmentative and
Alternative Communication (AAC) 23(4), 274–287.
Looija, R., Neerincx, M. A. and Lange, V. (2008) ‘Children’s Responses and Opinion on Three Bots
that Motivate, Educate and Play.’ Journal of Physical Agents 2(2), 13–19.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-37-320.jpg)
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MacDorman, K. F. and Ishiguro, H. (2006) ‘The Uncanny Advantage of Using Androids in Cognitive
and Social Science Research.’ Interaction Studies 7(3), 297–338.
Mori, M. (1970 [2012]) ‘The Uncanny Valley.’ trans. by MacDorman, K. F., and Kageki, N. IEEE
Spectrum [online] available from http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/
the-uncanny-valley [12 June 2012].
Mubin, O., Shahid, S., van de Sande, E., Krahmer, E., Swerts, M., Bartneck, C. and Feijs, L.
(2010) ‘Using Child-Robot Interaction to Investigate the User Acceptance of Constrained and
Artificial Languages.’ in IEEE 19th International Symposium in Robot and Human Interactive
Communication 2010. held 12–15 September 2010 at Viareggio, Italy. Piscataway, NJ USA:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 537–542.
Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.’ On the Horizon 9(5), 1–6.
Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research: A resource for social scientists and practitioner-researchers.
Hoboken, NJ USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Ruiz-del-Solar, J., Mascaró, M., Correa, M., Bernuy, F., Riquelme, R. and Verschae, R. (2010)
‘Analyzing the Human-Robot Interaction Abilities of a General-Purpose Social Robot in Different
Naturalistic Environments.’ in Baltes, J., Lagoudakis, M.G., Naruse, T. and Ghidary, S.S. (eds.)
RoboCup International Symposium 2009, ‘Robot Soccer World Cup XIII,’ LNAI 5949. held 29
June–5 July at Graz, Austria. Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 308–319.
Tanaka, F., Cicourel, A. and Movellan, J. R. (2007) ‘Socialization between Toddlers and Robots at an
Early Childhood Education Center.’ in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104
(46), 17954–17958.
Tung, F-W. and Chang, T-Y. (2013) ‘Exploring Children’s Attitudes towards Static and Moving
Humanoid Robots.’ in Kurosu, M. (ed.) The 15th International Conference, HCI International 2013
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Woods, S.N., Dautenhahn, K. and Schulz, J. (2006) ‘Exploring the Design Space of Robots: Children’s
perspectives.’ Interacting with Computers 18, 1390–1418.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-38-320.jpg)
![30 Part I: Images
but Asimov also advocated in favor of using them as the basis for eliminating the pos-
sibility of real killer robots.
First Law:
Second Law:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through
inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings,
except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as
such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Three Laws of Robotics
Figure 2.1: Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (Asimov 1942: 100)
A generation later, manga/anime writer Osamu Tezuka developed a list of controls
called the Ten Principles of Robotics shown in Figure 2.2. They were published as
part of his Tetsuwan Atomu series and were intended to serve as ethical guidelines for
robots of the future. Unlike Asimov’s laws, many of Tezuka’s principles specify legal
controls external to the robots themselves that could be implemented in real robots as
well as Tezuka’s fictional ones.
Ten Principles of Robot Law
1. Robots must serve mankind.
2. Robots must never kill or injure humans.
3. Robot manufacturers shall be responsible for their creations.
4. Robots involved in the production of currency, contraband or
dangerous goods, must hold a current permit.
5. Robots shall not leave the country without a permit.
6. A robots [sic] identity must not be altered, concealed or allowed
to be misconstrued.
7. Robots shall remain identifiable at all times.
8. Robots created for adult purposes shall not be permitted to work
with children.
9. Robots must not assist in criminal activities, nor aid or abet
criminals to escape justice.
10. Robots must refrain from damaging human homes or tools,
including other robots.
Figure 2.2: Ten Principles of Robot Law (Tezuka 2000 [1988: 77])](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-48-320.jpg)
![32 Part I: Images
The idea of humanoid servants is extremely alluring and quite old. Homer’s Iliad,
written in the eighth century BCE, includes a description of the home of Hephaestus,
the Greek god of blacksmithing. The god is tended to by golden servants built to look
like human girls. Hephaestus’ robots could, among other things, speak (Smith 2014).
In China, The Book of Lieh-tzǔ (Lieh-tzǔ ca. 4th
century)¹⁰ includes an account of a
robot created by an “artificer” named Yan Shi and given to King Mu (956–918 BCE) as
a gift. It could talk, dance, and sing. It seemed so real that it had to be disassembled
to prove that it was not a living human (Lieh-tzǔ ca. 4th
century [1912: 90–92]). These
stories reveal that humans have imagined robot servants for thousands of years.
Servant robots that are described in this section are, however, more recent creations:
Japanese karakuri ningyo and Hebrew golems.
A Karakuri ningyo
The Japanese term “karakuri” has a variety of English translations, including “trick,”
“mechanism,” and “mechanism that runs a machine.” All of these terms are accu-
rate descriptions of Karakuri ningyo, human-shaped dolls and puppets with complex
internal mechanisms that enable them to perform intricate patterns of movement.
They have been used in theater, religious ceremonies, and home entertainment since
the Japanese Edo period (1600–1867).¹¹
The three most well-known types of karakuri are dashi karakuri, butai karakuri,
and zashiki karakuri. Dashi karakuri are puppets used on multi-deck, festival floats
to reenact myths and religious stories (Boyle 2008 and Hornyak 2006). Puppeteers
use a complex set of springs and gears to control various parts of the karakuri’s body
and objects in their hands (e.g., opening and closing a fan) and to execute changes to
the puppet required by the story (e.g., opening the chest area to flip a mask onto the
puppet’s face). Butai karakuri, are life-size puppets that have been part of bunraku
theater since the mid-seventeenth century (Boyle 2008 and Hornyak 2006).¹² Zashiki
karakuri are mechanical dolls and the most truly autonomous of the three kinds of
karakuri.
10 There is disagreement about the author of The Book of Lieh-tzǔ. It is believed to have been pub-
lished in the 4th
century but its reputed author, Lieh-tzǔ, lived in the 5th
century BCE.
11 Edo Period of Japan (1600–1867) was a time of peace and stability. It began in 1603 when Tokugawa
leyasu, a shogun (military commander) appointed by the emperor, seized power from the emper-
or, defeated opposing samurai, and established a government in Edo (what is now called “Tokyo”).
Tokugawa established the Shogunate caste system led by samurai (warriors) who were loyal to him.
Shoguns continued to rule Japan until 1867. (Japanco.com 2002 and Wikipedia 2014)
12 According to Boyle (2008) many plays originally written for puppets were later revised and adapted
for human actors whose style of acting reflects its puppetry origins.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-50-320.jpg)
![2 Cultural icons 35
work. Usually a paper bearing the Hebrew letters for the name of God is placed in its
mouth at the time it is created. The golem is destroyed when that paper is removed.
In some accounts, removing the paper simply deactivates the golem; to destroy one
completely requires reversing the incantations that were used to create it. A typical
golem will look and move exactly as a human but it is unable to experience emo-
tions (although a few appear to fear destruction) and it cannot speak, although it can
understand spoken language. It is not intelligent and, at the moment of its creation, a
golem possesses all the knowledge that it will ever have.
1 History
Theword“golem”(Hebrew)םלוגappearsonceintheOldTestamentoftheBible:“Thine
eyes did see my undeveloped form…” (Psalm 139:16; Hebrew Publishing Company
1930: 982) but it is generally translated as “unformed” or “embryo” and does not refer
to an artificial human (Sherwin 2013). The oldest account of such a creature in Jewish
literature appears in the Talmud (Sherwin 1984: 2–4 and Valley 2005). Raba, a fourth-
century Babylonian scholar, is said to have created a man whom he sent to the home
of Rabbi Zera. Because the visitor refused to speak, Rabbi Zera identified it as an arti-
ficial man, saying, “You have been created by one of my colleagues… Return to dust”
which it did (cited in Leviant 2007: xiv and in Sherwin 1984: 3). Raba’s creation was
not called a “golem.” That term first appears as a reference to artificial humans in
the writings of Hebrew mystical scholars from the European Middle Ages and has
retained that meaning (Sherwin 2013 and Sherwin 1984).
Jewish mystics unearthed golems throughout Jewish history. Examples are a
female golem created by Spanish poet Eleazar Solomon ibn Gabirol (ca.1022-ca. 1058)
who served him as a housemaid (and possibly as a mistress) and a male golem of
Rabbi Elijah Ba’al Shem of Chelm (1550–1583) which fell on the rabbi and acciden-
tally killed him when it was deactivated. Mystics also reinterpreted Biblical stories.
According to sixteenth-century mystic Isaiah Horowitz, for example, the “evil report”
that Joseph brings to his father (Genesis 37:2) is that his brothers were having sex with
female golems (Sherwin 1984:39). Other mystical scholars blame Enosh, the grand-
son of Adam and Eve, for the start of idolatry (Genesis 4:26) because Satan was able
to infiltrate the golem Enosh had created which led humans to worship it as a god
(Valley 2005:46 and Sherwin 1984:19). Commentaries of several scholars maintain
that God shaped the first human out of mud (Genesis 1:27–28); but until God breathed
a soul into it (Genesis 2:7), it was a golem (Jewish Encyclopedia 1906, Sherwin 1984,
Sherwin 2013 and Valley 2005:45–46).
The most widely-known golem appears in The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds
of the Maharal of Prague published in 1909 by Rabbi Yodl Rosenberg of Warsaw
(Rosenberg 1909 [2007]). It contains stories about Yossele, a golem created by the
16th
century Talmudic scholar Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague)
to protect the Jewish community from attacks by anti-Semites – a real danger in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25513808-250512085138-f6181804/85/Robots-That-Talk-And-Listen-Technology-And-Social-Impact-53-320.jpg)
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- 5. Markowitz (Ed.) Robots that Talk and Listen
- 7. Robots that Talk and Listen Technology and Social Impact Edited by Judith A. Markowitz
- 8. ISBN 978-1-61451-603-3 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-61451-440-4 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-61451-915-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter, Inc., Berlin/Boston/Munich Cover image: Kalista Mick, Honda Research Institute, USA Typesetting: PTP-Berlin Protago-TEX-Production GmbH, Berlin Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Editor Judith A. Markowitz 5801 North Sheridan Road #19A Chicago IL 60660 USA Email: judith@jmarkowitz.com
- 9. Contents List of contributing authors | XIII Preface | 1 Part I: Images Steve Mushkin My robot | 5 I Introduction | 5 II Generative-research methodology | 6 III What children want from technology | 6 A Methodology | 7 B Findings and discussion | 7 IV Robots | 10 A Prior research | 10 B Robot study | 12 V Conclusions | 18 Judith Markowitz Cultural icons | 21 I Introduction | 21 II Robot as killer | 22 A The androids of R.U.R. | 23 B The frankenstein monster | 26 C Managing killer robots | 29 III Robot as servant | 31 A Karakuri ningyo | 32 B Golem | 34 IV Robot as lover | 39 A Pygmalion’s statue | 39 B Robots loving humans | 43 C Managing robot love | 45 V Conclusion | 46 David F. Dufty Android aesthetics: Humanoid robots as works of art | 55 I Introduction | 55 II The history of automata for art and entertainment | 56 A Automata in ancient times | 57 B Clockmaking and automata | 57
- 10. VI Contents C Karakuri ningyo | 58 D Animatronics | 58 E An android as a self portrait: the work of Hiroshi Ishiguro | 59 F Hanson robotics | 60 III The Philip K. Dick android | 61 IV Robot components | 62 V Building a dialogue system | 63 A Gricean maxims | 63 B Architecture | 64 C Conversing like Philip K. Dick | 65 VI Conversational competence | 66 A Be orderly | 66 B Background noise | 68 C Cooperative principle | 68 D Competence | 69 VII The scientific value of androids | 71 VIII The value of androids as art | 72 IX The uncanny valley: a possible obstacle to artistic androids | 73 X Consciousness | 74 XI Conclusion | 75 Part II: Frameworks and Guidelines Bilge Mutlu, Sean Andrist, and Allison Sauppé Enabling human-robot dialogue | 81 I Introduction | 81 II Review of the literature | 82 A Multimodal, multiparty dialogue | 83 B Situated interaction | 84 C Joint action | 85 D Linguistic and nonverbal effectiveness | 87 E Adaptive dialogue | 88 III A framework for human-robot dialogue-systems | 89 A Multimodal language processing | 90 B Domain processing | 90 C Task model | 90 D Dialogue model | 91 E Multimodal production | 91 F Adaptive dialogue | 92
- 11. Contents VII IV Enabling effective human-robot dialogue | 93 A Task model for instruction and repair | 93 B A production model for expert robot speech | 103 C Summary | 115 V Opportunities and challenges for future work | 116 A Linking task and dialogue models | 116 B Development of reusable models | 117 C Open sharing of models and components | 117 VI Conclusion | 118 Fumiko Nazikian Robots can talk – but can they teach? | 125 I Introduction | 125 II Androids in the classroom | 126 III Foreign-language teaching | 128 A The evolution of foreign-language teaching | 129 B The ACTFL guidelines | 130 C Assessing accuracy in Japanese | 132 IV Robots and the ACTFL guidelines | 133 V Identifying the difficulties facing Japanese-language learners | 134 A Learning sounds and prosody | 134 B Grammar | 136 C Sociocultural aspects | 139 D Pragmatic strategies | 141 E Can a speech-enabled robot teach? | 142 VI Global communication and the intercultural speaker | 143 A Dialogue and the intercultural speaker | 144 B Robots as an intercultural link | 144 VII Conclusion | 145 Nicole Mirnig and Manfred Tscheligi Comprehension, coherence and consistency: Essentials of Robot Feedback | 149 I Introduction | 149 II Prior work | 152 III A framework for human-robot interaction | 154 A Introduction | 154 B Robot feedback | 154 C Mental models | 156 D Three basic principles | 158 IV Conclusion | 166
- 12. VIII Contents Part III: Learning Jonathan H. Connell Extensible grounding of speech for robot instruction | 175 I Introduction | 175 A Eldercare as a domain | 175 B Language and learning | 177 C Cultural bootstrapping | 179 II Grounding substrate | 180 A Object finding | 181 B Object properties | 183 C Gesture recognition | 185 D Speech interpretation | 187 E Manipulation routines | 189 III Demonstration of abilities | 191 A Scene understanding | 192 B Object naming | 193 C Semantic web access | 195 D Procedure learning | 197 IV Adding motivation | 199 Alan R. Wagner Lies and deception: Robots that use falsehood as a social strategy | 203 I Introduction | 203 II Prior work | 205 III Basic elements | 206 IV Framework | 208 A Representing an interaction | 208 B Outcome-matrix transformation | 209 C Stereotyping | 211 V Implementation | 213 A Examining the factors influence the decision to lie | 216 B Using stereotypes and partner modeling to predict the cost of lying | 218 VI Summary and future work | 222 VII Conclusion | 223 Joerg C. Wolf and Guido Bugmann Robotic learning from multimodal instructions: a card game case study | 227 I Introduction | 227 II Related work | 228 III Human-to-human instruction | 228
- 13. Contents IX IV System components: instructor input | 231 A Overview | 231 B Speech | 231 C Non-verbal input | 233 D Multimodal integration | 235 E Temporal and semantic integration | 237 V Robot agent learning | 238 A Overview | 238 B Rule frames | 238 C Action selection at execution time | 240 D Mapping issues | 240 VI Dialogue management (DM) | 242 VII System evaluation | 243 A Approach | 243 B Experiment 1: dealing instruction | 244 C Experiment 2: teaching four rules | 247 D Errors per rule | 249 VIII Discussion of errors | 251 A Human error | 251 B Dialogue errors | 251 C Grammar coverage | 252 D Manipulation recognition and multimodal integration | 252 IX Summary and conclusions | 253 A Summary | 253 B Corpus-based approach | 253 C Demonstration channel | 254 D Multimodal integration | 255 E Conclusion | 255 Part IV: Design François Grondin and François Michaud Real-time audition system for autonomous mobile robots | 263 I Introduction | 263 II Issues and challenges in robot audition | 264 A Microphones | 265 B Reverberation | 265 C Environmental noise | 267 D Ego noise | 268 E Real-time performance | 268
- 14. X Contents III ManyEars: an open framework for robot audition | 268 A Localization | 269 B Tracking | 271 C Separation | 272 D Post-filtering | 274 IV Recognition | 275 A Automatic speech recognition (ASR) | 275 B Speaker recognition | 278 C Emotion, music and daily sounds recognition | 279 V Conclusion | 280 Sandra Y. Okita and Victor Ng-Thow-Hing The effects of design choices on human-robot interactions in children and adults | 285 I Introduction | 285 II Prior work – the evolution of the role of robots | 286 III Social schemas and social metaphors | 288 IV Design choices in lower-level communication modalities | 291 A Type of voice | 291 B Speed setting of gestures | 294 V Design choices in higher-level communication modalities | 297 A Proxemics and social schemas | 297 B Level of attention | 299 VI Effects of developmental differences on design choices | 303 A Level of intelligent behavior in robots | 304 B Realism and contingency level | 307 VII Conclusions and future work | 309 Part V: Conclusion Roger K. Moore From talking and listening robots to intelligent communicative machines | 317 I Introduction | 317 II Looking for solutions | 319 A Beyond speech | 320 B Beyond words | 322 C Beyond meaning | 323 D Beyond communication | 324 E Beyond dialogue | 325 F Beyond one-off interactions | 326
- 15. Contents XI III Towards intelligent communicative machines | 327 A Achieving an appropriate balance of capabilities | 328 B A consolidated perspective | 329 C Beyond human abilities | 330 IV Conclusion | 330 Index | 337
- 17. List of contributing authors Sean Andrist, Graduate Research Assistant, Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI USA http:// pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sandrist/ sandrist@ cs.wisc.edu Guido Bugmann, Associate Professor (Reader) in Intelligent Systems, Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, The Cognition Institute, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom http://www.tech. plym.ac.uk/soc/staff/guidbugm/bugmann.htm Jonathan Connell, Research Scientist, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY USA http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/re- searcher/view.php?person=us-jconnell David Dufty, Senior Research Officer, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia http:// blog.daviddufty.com/ François Grondin, Junior Engineer, IntRoLab Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Institute of Tech- nological Innovation (3IT) Université de Sher- brooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada https:// introlab.3it.usherbrooke.ca Judith Markowitz, Founder and President, J. Markowitz, Consultants, Chicago, IL USA http:// www.jmarkowitz.com François Michaud, Director, Interdisciplinary Institute of Technological Innovation (3IT), Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada http://www.usherbrooke.ca/3it/eng- lish/ and Professor, Department of Electrical En- gineering and Computer Engineering, IntRoLab, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada https://introlab.3it.usherbrooke.ca Nicole Mirnig, Research Fellow, Information and Communication Technologies & Society (ICT&S) Center and Christian Doppler Laboratory for “Contextual Interfaces,” University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria http://www.icts.sbg.ac.at/ Roger K. Moore, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Shef- field, United Kingdom http://www.dcs.shef. ac.uk/~roger/ Steve Mushkin, Founder and President, Latitude Research, Beverly, MA, US www.latd.com Bilge Mutlu, Director, Human-Computer In- teraction Laboratory and Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI USA http:// pages.cs.wisc.edu/~bilge/ bilge@cs.wisc.edu Fumiko Nazikian, Director, Japanese Language Program and Senior Lecturer in Japanese, De- partment of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, New York, NY USA http:// www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/faculty.html Victor Ng-Thow-Hing, Principal Scientist, Honda Research Institute USA Inc. http://www.honda- ri.com Sandra Okita, Associate Professor of Technol- ogy and Education, Columbia University, Teach- ers College, New York, NY USA http://www. tc.columbia.edu/academics/?facid=so2269 Allison Sauppé, Graduate Research Assistant, Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, Department of Computer Sciences, Univer- sity of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI USA http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~aterrell/ aterrell@ cs.wisc.edu Manfred Tscheligi, Co-Director, Information and Communication Technologies & Society (ICT&S) Center and Director Christian Doppler Labora- tory for “Contextual Interfaces,” University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria http://www.icts.sbg. ac.at/
- 18. XIV About the Editor Alan Wagner, Senior Research Scientist, Georgia Tech Research Institute and the Institute for Ro- botics and Intelligent Machines, Atlanta, GA USA Joerg Wolf, Research Associate, School of Com- puting and Mathematics, Plymouth University and System Architect, Navigation, Elektrobit Automotive GmbH About the Editor Dr. Judith Markowitz is known internationally as a thought leader in speech processing. She has published exten- sively, has been active in standards development, and served as the technology editor of Speech Technology Mag- azine for more than ten years. She recently co-edited two books on advanced natural-language solutions with Dr. Amy Neustein, Editor of De Gruyter’s series entitled Speech Technolocy and Text Mining in Medicine and Healthcare. In 2006, Judith was awarded IEEE Senior Member status.
- 19. Preface Robots That Talk and Listen assembles a comprehensive vision of speech-enabled robots from multiple vantage points. Between its covers you will find science and culture, hardware and software, frameworks and principles, learning and teaching, and technology and art – in the past, the present, and the future. The perspectives represented are those of roboticists, speech scientists, and educators; researchers from industry and academia; young children and seasoned scholars. The product of this diversity is a compendium that advances the art and science of spoken-language processing in robots. This 12-chapter anthology is partitioned into four parts followed by a conclusion that extends the vision beyond speech and language. The chapters in Part I provide images of robot pasts and futures. The first chapter presents a robotic future as imagined by those most likely to live in a world filled with social robots: children. It is replete with pictorial and verbal images derived from two generative studies of what children want from technology. The next two chapters probe the past for knowledge about the present. The first presents an overview of the origins and evolution of sentiments about robots. To accomplish that, it employs cul- tural icons that epitomize three roles that we expect robots to fill: killer (the fear that they will turn against us), servant (the expectation that they will continue to serve us), and lover (the prospect that we will engage in romantic liaisons with them). Part I is rounded out with an edifying survey of the use of mechanical humans made as art and entertainment. The chapter then delves more deeply into the art and science involved in the construction of the Philip K. Dick android, emphasizing the dialogue precepts and engineering tools that were incorporated into it. The three chapters in Part II employ elements of human-human interaction to generate frameworks for creating effective human-robot interactions. The first chapter specifies a powerful framework for multimodal and multi-party dialogues. The authors test the model in two vastly-different types of robot-human interaction: man- aging errors and misunderstandings as an instructor; and communicating varying levels of expertise as a tour guide. The following chapter delineates the linguistic, social, and cultural knowledge that must be incorporated into a robot tasked with teaching a foreign language. Using the Japanese language as a model, the chapter identifies methods for instruction, practice, and evaluation of language skills. The author then reflects upon the growing need for intercultural awareness and sensitiv- ity. Part II concludes with a fascinating exposition of three fundamental principles of communication that are critical for effective robot-human interaction: Comprehen- sion, Coherence, and Consistency. Each of these principles is examined and demon- strated in studies involving robot-human interaction. The third part provides three distinct approaches to robot learning. This part begins with an in-depth presentation of an approach to the grounding of linguistic, perceptual, and motor skills in the real world. This method for grounding enables a
- 20. 2 Preface mobile robot to learn instructions and to extend that knowledge to new commands, objects, and motor skills through spoken and gestured instruction. The chapter the concludes with a thoughtful exploration of the elements of self-motivation. The second chapter provides an enlightening exposition of various kinds of lying which leads to the construction of a framework for teaching robots how to use lies as a social strategy. That framework is tested in a series of card games that vary in the degree to which deception benefits or harms each of the players. A card game is also employed in the final chapter in this part of the book. The game is used to test a corpus-based, learning system that was derived from human-human instruction that combined speech with gesture and card manipulation. Part IV contains two chapters on design. The first offers an intriguing look at the external world through the sensors of a speech-enabled, autonomous robot. It delin- eates the acoustic challenges developers face when designing for dynamic noise and multiparty interactions. The authors then present methods and tools for overcom- ing them while remaining within the limited power resources of a mobile robot. The next chapter provides an illuminating examination of how low- and high-level design choices affect the success of robot-human interactions. The authors provide powerful evidence in favor of human-centric design from studies of multimodal interactions with both adults and children. The chapter concludes by extending the purview of human-centric design to awareness of characteristics of populations of target users (e.g., developmental differences). The conclusion rounds out the book by returning to the future. The author chal- lenges developers to move “beyond speech, beyond words, beyond meaning, beyond communication, beyond dialogue and beyond one-off interactions.” He offers a vision of robots that understand human behavior and are capable of engaging in human (and superhuman) communication. In compiling this anthology, the editor has endeavored to construct an authorita- tive resource on speech-enabled robots for engineers, system developers, linguists, cognitive scientists, futurists and others interested in understanding, developing, and utilizing speech- and language-enabled robots. The incorporation of heteroge- neous perspectives into a single source is predicated on the belief that social robots will play a transformational role in human society and that a true appreciation of their impact entails familiarity with a panorama of perspectives. November, 2014 Judith A. Markowitz, Chicago, IL USA
- 21. Part I: Images
- 23. Steve Mushkin My robot Abstract: Children in industrialized nations are growing up in a world populated by digital devices and content and that technology has been making its way into elemen- tary education. Yet, the application and design of technologies for classrooms are determined by adults with minimal input from children other than to observe how children respond to it. It is our position that effective use of advanced technology in educational settings should reflect the vision and expectations of the children who will be utilizing it. Our object is to help technology developers, educators and parents design and use advanced technology in more effective ways. This chapter describes two studies that use generative-research methodology to iden- tify children’s expectations of advanced technologies in educational and personal settings. In the first study we asked 201 children aged 12 years and younger from eight different countries to draw a picture of something that they would like their comput- ers to do differently. The majority (77 %) of them want computers to interact with them in more intuitive ways, such as using speech. Many of them also anthropomorphized the computer as robots. In the second study we asked 348 children from six countries to write stories about a robot that would serve as their personal robot. We found that for our participants the boundary between humans and machines is blurred. They view robots as peers – friends, study-buddies, and even caretakers – rather than as tools. Based on these findings, we recommend ways in which robots, speech, and other technologies can be applied to educational environments. I Introduction An increasing number of children and young adults are growing up in a world filled with digital devices, content, and services, such as video games, computers, cell phones, and the Internet. Prensky (2001) calls these individuals “digital natives” because they are “‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (Prensky 2001:1). These digital natives come from the generations that will live in a world that could be populated by autonomous, social robots and other incarnations of artificial intelligence. Since those technologies are already making their way into education settings, the objective of the research presented in this chapter is to help technology developers, educators and parents design advanced technology in more effective ways. It is our view that the effectiveness of advanced systems for educational set- tings will be greatly enhanced if they reflect the vision of the digital natives who will be using them. There is, however, little research to guide such development. This
- 24. 6 Part I: Images chapter describes two studies that use generative-research methodology to identify what young children from around the world expect from advanced technologies in educational and personal settings. The chapter is organized as follows: Section II describes generative-research methodology, Section III presents a study on the changes children want to see in com- puting and Internet technology, Section IV presents a literature review on children’s responses to robots followed by our second study on children’s images of robots. We conclude with a summary of our findings. II Generative-research methodology Generative-research methodology is a broad grouping of methods considered to be human-centric research because they treat people as collaborators and idea-genera- tors (Hanington and Martin 2012). The object is to give participants room to express themselves creatively in some form while grounding that activity in specific research questions. Generative research can be powerful for unlocking concepts and ideas that aren’t necessarily easy to articulate. Additionally, people reveal a lot about themselves (e.g., problems, needs, dreams, aspirations) during the creative process, providing a rich context that the researchers might not elicit through other means. Because of these characteristics generative-research methodologies have proven useful for edu- cation design as a way to elicit abstract ideas more easily through means other than standard verbal interactions, such as interviews and surveys (Hanington 2007). A generative-research study typically involves small samples. It begins with the creation of one or more artifacts (e.g., drawings, collages, stories). The artifacts are seen as containing creative projections of the target concepts that can facilitate sub- sequent verbal expression of concepts. Analysis of the material collected in a gen- erative study can employ a variety of techniques that range from simple counting of occurrence to various types of content analysis. Among the most frequently-used techniques is clustering of common items as a way to generate categories (Robson 2002). III What children want from technology In 2010, we conducted a study designed to gather information about what digital natives want computers and the Internet to do differently (also see Latitude Research 2010). The key study questions were: 1. What does the next generation of digital natives expect and desire from technol- ogy, and how does this differ across world regions?
- 25. 1 My robot 7 2. How can we engage children as authors and inventors of future technology, not just passive recipients? 3. How can young minds help companies develop unexpected content and technol- ogy experiences that resonate with people of all ages? A Methodology We employed generative-research techniques with 201 children aged twelve and under from eight different countries: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Colombia, India, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. The children were identified using a third party panel provider that recruited adult panelists with children in the 7–12 age range who agreed to help guide their children through the activity. We asked each child to draw her or his answer to the question, “What would you like your computer or the Internet to do that it can’t do right now?” We also inter- viewed parents regarding their children’s use of technology and participation in a number of online activities. Latitude employed a coding scheme to score the presence of specific themes in children’s inventions (e.g., type of interface, degree of interactivity, physical-digital convergence, and user’s desired end-goal). B Findings and discussion In answer to the study question: What does the next generation of digital natives expect and desire from technology, and how does this differ across world regions? We found the following technology features to be equally desired by all the children in the study: intuitive interfaces (e.g., speech, touch screen), confers ability/knowledge, social/humanlike, and video tools. The children expressed a desire to interact with technology more intuitively and they tended to characterize technology in terms that were fundamentally human. More than three-quarters of them (77 %) drew pictures that represented dynamic human-level responsiveness on the part of technology and 43 % drew themselves or another person interacting with their creations. Of the children who specified an interface, 20 % explicitly requested verbal/auditory controls as shown in figures 1.1a and 1.1b. Figure 1.1c indicates that parent interviews revealed that the expectation of voice-controlled technology was even more widespread. This category intersected with aspects of proposals to make technology more social. Although future technology as a whole was characterized as humanlike, robots were represented as being more akin to humans than keyboards, PCs, or the Inter- net. Parent interviews supported this view. Figure 1.1d provides a typical example. Although anthropomorphism appeared in the suggestions of children from all geo-
- 26. 8 Part I: Images graphic areas, there were regional and cultural differences within this category. Chil- dren in South Africa, India, and Latin America were more likely than those in Europe, Australia, and North America to anthropomorphize computers – to imagine them as friends or teachers that could share their experiences or help in the accomplishment of a goal (see Figure 1.1d). Twenty-six percent of the children proposed ideas that facilitated sharing with others, such as friends, teachers, parents, and even the robot (figure 1.1d). In the inter- view about her drawing, a seven-year-old girl from the United States said, “I want to video kids on the other side of the world using a different kind of language.” The category identified as “confers ability/knowledge” addresses the study ques- tion: How can we engage children as authors and inventors of future technology, (a) (b) (c) (d) I want a computer that talks to me when I’m play- ing my games. It helps me build adventures of my own, and avoid obstacles in the game. My daughter would like a computer that talked with her like a friend, so that they could share things like friends. [translation] My son wishes the computer was a robot he could take everywhere with him – to play chess with him or soccer outside... in other words,he wants it to be a friend he can share with his other friends [translation] The computer becomes 3-dimensional and, instead of a keyboard, it’s controlled by voice. [translation] Figure 1.1: Images of future technology; (a) boy, U.S.; (b) girl age 11, Denmark; (c) parent, girl age 7, Argentina; (d) parent, boy age 7, Colombia
- 27. 1 My robot 9 not just passive recipients? It refers to wanting technology to provide quick and easy access to information that would empower users by fostering knowledge or other- wise “adult” skills, such as speaking a different language or learning how to cook. One-quarter of participants in South Africa and India imagined computers that would assist with or output knowledge (such as help solving a math problem), and 74 % of kids in those regions envisioned technologies that aided with real-world tasks or abilities, such as cleaning one’s room or learning ballet. These results indicate that educators have a real opportunity to create new experiences where technology seems to disappear and where children experience the web directly as a source of learning and knowledge. This category is also expressed in the impetus to have technology that supports creativity. One-quarter of the children’s inventions – the same number which favored gaming – centered on art or design. Nearly one third of all the children went beyond simple creations, envisioning entire platforms for creating games, Web sites, action figures, and so on. Children’s interest in a host of design fields – industrial, land- scape, fashion, Web, and more – reflects the visual richness of the online world, as well as the can-do creative drive that tech encourages. One-third of the children also invented technologies that would empower users by fostering knowledge or other- wise “adult” skills, such as speaking a different language or learning how to cook. Another expression of this category is the fuzzy boundary between “online” and “offline.” For these children, technology is no longer something that mediates experi- ence, but something that pervades it. This convergence of the actual and virtual took many forms. Nearly 4 in 10 of the participants imagined immersive experiences of physical spaces (e.g., real or simulated travel) or devices that assisted physical activi- ties (e.g., playing sports). A full 9 % explicitly cited 3D effects. Information delivery by the Internet enables real-world actions and choices. Taken together, the four major categories of features specified by the children help answer the third study question: How can young minds help companies develop unexpected content and technology experiences that resonate with people of all ages? More advanced, human-like interactions with technology create opportunities for in-class and at-home learning and can make learning feel more like play. For these digital natives, learning systems equipped with networking functionality and real- time, natural language processing can build a greater sense of independence and control whether the material covered is for school or personal development (e.g., cre- ating art, cooking, or playing an instrument). Children across the world created technologies that seamlessly meld online and offline experiences, such as computers that “print” real food or that allow the user to touch objects displayed on the screen. There are significant opportunities for networked objects (e.g., The Internet of Things) to reinvent gaming in traditionally offline spaces. For example, users could accrue lifestyle points (automatically tracked) when they use their running shoes or take out the recycling bin.
- 28. 10 Part I: Images IV Robots The study described in this section examines stories and drawings of children about robots in educational and personal settings. The foundations for this research can be found in the study described in Section III and prior work on children’s responses to robots. A Prior research Some research on children and robots examines the “uncanny-valley” response by children. The uncanny-valley response was proposed in an essay by Masahiro Mori in 1970. Mori hypothesized that humans respond positively to robots until they become almost human-seeming in both appearance and behavior. At that point responses plunge into what Mori called the “uncanny valley.” He further conjectured that once android design becomes isomorphic with humans, reactions to them will, once again, become more positive. MacDorman and Ishiguro (2006) observed children interacting with androids and observed age differences with regard to the phenomenon. Woods and Dautenhahn (2006) surveyed children’s assessments of 40 images of androids varying in appearance from those that closely resembled humans (“human-like”) to those that were more machine-like in appearance (“human-machine”). The children rated each robot image on appearance, personality, and emotion. The researchers found that “children judged human-like robots as aggressive, but human–machine robots as friendly” (Woods and Dautenhahn 2006:1390). Both sets of researchers conclude that children exhibit the uncanny-valley effect and that designers of robots need to take it into account when designing robots for education. Other research has examined children’s responses to robots more generally. Tung and Chang observed children’s responses to robots ranging in both anthropomorphic appearance and in social behaviors, including speech. They determined that “Chil- dren perceive robots are more socially and physically attractive when they exhibit sufficient social cues” (Tung and Chang: 2013:237). The effect of social behaviors appeared to apply to highly anthropomorphic robots as well as to those that are less human-like. Although some of their findings differ from those of Woods and Dauten- hahn, they make similar recommendations for the design of robots for education: “Middle- to low-level anthropomorphic designs combined with appropriate social cues can enhance children [sic] preferences and acceptance of robots” (Tung and Chang: 2013:237). A few studies have focused specifically on acceptance of various kinds of lan- guage. Looija, Neerincx, and de Lange (2008) surveyed 8 and 9 year-old children after they interacted with three bots: a text interface, a virtual character and a physi- cal robot. They found that the children enjoyed the virtual and physical bots more than the text interface. They rated the physical robot as being the most fun. Mubin
- 29. 1 My robot 11 et al. (2010) assessed acceptability of three kinds of robot language: unconstrained natural language; constrained language; and artificial language. “Constrained lan- guage” refers to the practice of limiting the grammar and vocabulary. Constrained languages are often used in real-world robots for a number of pragmatic reasons, such as to enhance the accuracy of speech recognition. Artificial languages are also used in some robots, such as Hasbro’s Furby toy which speaks furbish. Mubin et al. per- formed Wizard of Oz tests with children aged 9 to 12 who played a card game with a robot. Afterwards, the children evaluated their experiences. The researchers found that children accepted all three language styles and did not appear to object to learn- ing an artificial language in order to play the game. It isn’t clear how the findings about artificial language would apply to education in the real world unless that lan- guage is actually a foreign language the robot is teaching. Acceptance of robots in classroom and play environments is often done through observation of the children’s interaction patterns with the robots. Tanaka, Cicourel, and Movellan (2007), for example, put a dynamic robot into a classroom of toddlers and found that children’s social interaction with the robot increased steadily. By the conclusion of the five-month project the children treated the robot much as they treated each other. When the researchers changed the robot to make its speech and other behavior more rigid and less social, the children’s interactions with it dimin- ished as well. This corroborates the findings of Tung and Chang (2013) described earlier. In a study done by Ruiz-del-Solar et al. (2010), a robot gave lectures to groups of children aged 10 through 13. Afterwards the children evaluated the robot and its presentation on a linear scale of grades going from 1 (poor) to 7(excellent). The evalu- ation of the robot had an average score of 6.4, which is about 90 %. More than half (59.6 %) of the children also evaluated the robot’s presentation as excellent and less than 1 % rated it as bad or very bad. In addition, 92 % expressed support for the idea of allowing robots to teach some subjects to future schoolchildren. Light et al. (2007) is one of the few studies that solicited input from children about design. Like our 2010 study, it was not specifically directed at obtaining designs for assistive robots. The researchers asked six children without disabilities to use a set of drawings and craft materials to create low-technology inventions for assisting the communication of a child with severe speech and motor impairments. The design process and the inventions were analyzed using qualitative methods. They found that what the children created was significantly different from existing augmenta- tive and assistive communication tools. What they created was often multi-functional and capable of supporting social communication with peers. Although these devices were not necessarily defined as robots, they were sometimes described as compan- ions rather than technology.
- 30. 12 Part I: Images B Robot study What has been missing from the prior research on children and robots is the use of generative research to identify the role that digital natives want robots to play in edu- cational and play settings. Our primary hypothesis was that robots, as the embodi- ment of artificial intelligence, can help us understand generally how we might want to interact with a new breed of machine intelligence in the future. These are the key study questions that came from this hypothesis: 1. What intersections exist among learning, play, and creativity; and how might technology facilitate all three fluidly? 2. What kind of relationships do children hope to develop with and through robots? 3. What are the specific opportunities for robots and other technologies to ignite and encourage children’s learning and creativity? 1 Methodology As with our 2010 study of children’s images of future technology, this study employed generative-research techniques. We engaged a third-party panel-provider to recruit adult panelists with children aged 8 through 12 who agreed to help guide their children through the study activity. This process was repeated for each of the countries included in the study: Australia, France, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The study was performed with 348 children and their parents. None of the families participating in this study were involved in our prior study. Given our primary hypothesis, we focused on how children imagine themselves interacting with robots in the future. Since we are interested in enabling education design, we limited the environments to learning situations. Children were asked to imagine their lives as if robots were a fixture in their learn- ing environments – at school and beyond. After answering a series of basic demo- graphic and technology usage questions, children were told to select and write a story set in one of three narrative-specific life settings: in the classroom; at school, but outside of class; and at home after school. They were encouraged to draw a picture to accompany their stories. We did a pilot test of the methodology in a classroom in Australia before initiating the full study. As we did in our 2011 study, we employed a coding scheme to quantify the pres- ence of certain themes among the collected stories and images. Specifically, we coded around a few areas, including the nature of human-robot relationships and the dimensions of human-robot activities (e.g., play, learning, creation, and explo- ration).
- 31. 1 My robot 13 2 Findings and discussion Several major categories emerged from the study that addressed the key study ques- tions. These findings are also described in our summary report (Latitude 2012). The following categories provide answers to the study question: What intersec- tions exist among learning, play, and creativity; and how might technology facilitate all three fluidly? – Learning and play overlap. – Robots empower children to pursue advanced learning and creativity. While one might expect children to create more stories about play than learning, the percentage of children who wrote about learning (38 %) was equal to the percentage of those who wrote about play. Many stories also portray learning and play as allied, overlapping, or equivalent pursuits. Movement between learning and play is fluid – even though, in the children’s lives, learning and play are often much more compart- mentalized. In figure 1.2a, for example, doing math homework begins as an onus but is easily transformed into a game. In figures 1.2a, b, and c, the stories flow back and forth between learning and playing. The boy who wrote the text in figure 1.2c, for example, equates building problems and building (toy) models. An important aspect of the melding of learning and play can be attributed to the portrayal of robots by 75 % of the children as patient and supportive teachers. Figures 1.2a and 1.2d reveal that these qualities make it easier for children to become eager to tackle what might normally be boring or daunting material. Creating and learning are also strongly linked in children’s minds. By providing a supportive learning environment, robots motivate children to take more creative risks. Approximately one quarter of the children described how their robots freed them to pursue and express creative activities by moving challenging low-level tasks to the background. In figure 1.3a RJ, the “cool dude” robot, allows the child’s ideas to shine by handling spelling errors and the robots in figures 1.3b and 1.2c help those children to think and imagine as part of their learning environments. The answer the children gave to the study question: What kind of relationships do children hope to develop with and through robots? was that they expected to have multiple relationships with robots. Since their personal robots are always available, they are often portrayed as having multi-faceted relationships with the children. The following relationships were expressed by many of the children: – A robot can be both a playmate/friend and a study buddy. – A robot can be a role model. – A robot can be a caretaker. All of these categories support a core finding in our prior study (Latitude 2011): for these young digital natives, the boundary between human and robot/machine is tenuous. This is exemplified by the extremely human-like pictures in figures 1.2c, 1.2d, and 1.4a as well as by many of the stories.
- 32. 14 Part I: Images The robots are humanoid peers with whom the children can identify and/or emulate. The robot drawing in figure 1.4a is one of the clearest pictorial representations of this but nearly two-thirds of stories revealed that the children take for granted that robots can be both friends and study buddies. This duality is closely linked to the blending of learning with play and is represented as both natural and expected. The examples in figure 1.4 as well as those in figures 1.2c and 1.3b exhibit this relation- ship duality. (a) (c) (b) (d) Larry [the robot] said to me, ‘Look, maths is an important part of your life and you will be using it a lot in the future. If you don’t do maths now with me I won’t be a close friend.’ I said, ‘Ok I will do it,’ so we raced each other with multiplication and he won but I got a better score than I got at school. Every time we did it I got better and started to kind of like maths. When we finished, I said to Larry, ‘Thanks for caring about me.’ When I got to school this morning, my teacher surprised me by giving me a robot to help me with my schoolwork. We played football at recess with my friends. In class, he wrote for me and helped me to think. Leaving school he carried my bag and transformed into a bike. When we got home he prepared my snack and helped me do my homework. He created books for me to read, and we played with toy cars. He keeps my secrets. I can tell him anything, and he gives me advice. [translation] I have a few problems in spelling. The robot shall support me and help me improve until I am at the same level as my classmates. The teacher tells the robot where my problems are. The robot is looking for one of his many stored programs and dictates to me. I write what he says and correct it. He can also wrinkle his forehead when something is not right. He continually encourages me even when I have not done so well. [translation] My group finished its work before class ended, so my teacher let us leave early with the robot. I am overcome with joy and I play with him. But my friends are jealous so I lend them him (but not always). We are happy that he is with us and we have a good time. He helps us with building problems, like building models. Or scientific and alchemical problems. He can fly, drive, run and walk, of course. [translation] Figure 1.2: Intersections between learning and play; (a) girl age 11, Australia; (b) boy age 11, France; (c) boy age 10, France; (d) girl age 10, Germany
- 33. 1 My robot 15 (a) (b) RJ is a cool dude robot. He looks like a transformer robot, and with a clickof a button he shows me his screen. It then looks like a laptop. I may type my work into the laptop, instead of writing. Then RJ fixes my spelling, and tells me when my sentence is wrong. That way the teacher does not see all the mistakes, but can see how good my idea is. The robot is like a new friend for me. It helps me with my homework. It can do it much better than my parents because it knows exactly how to explain the lessons to a kid like me. The robot is very smart and can answer a lot of questions for me and tell me interesting stories. He always reminds me of all possible things, which I would have otherwise forgotten. [translation] Figure 1.3: Intersections between learning and creativity; (a) boy age 12, South Africa; (b) boy age 9, Germany Even though their robots are humanoid in many ways, the children describe them as being clearly different from humans. The robot in figure 1.5a is metallic and has a funny voice; the one in figure 1.5b is small and has batteries in its “hair,” and the robots in figures 1.2c and 1.3a have remarkable transformer abilities. As those figures also show, that mentioning how a robot differs from human children is often accom- panied by statements that the children have fully accepted the robot as part of their social group. (a) (b) The robot helps you with the homework and then he plays with you. My parents were happy that they now no longer had to help me with the homework... [translation] When I get home, my robot helps me with my homework. ...It could do everything—play soccer, build Legos, read, do math, write and all the movements a person can make. Since my parents really are always at work a lot, they can’t always help me or play with me or cook something. Now the robot helps them with that. [translation] Figure 1.4: Dual friend and study-buddy relationships; (a) boy age 10, Germany; (b) boy age 9, Germany
- 34. 16 Part I: Images (a) (b) My teacher treated my robot just like she was a real human student. My friends treated my robot like a human, too. She is friendly and funny and she fits in with all of us. No one would ever know that she is a robot except that she is made of metal and does not have skin. She is really smart and everyone likes to talk to her. She has a funny voice, but we do not tease her. At school, this robot helped or played with everyone near me. Everyone was a little scared at the start but accept the presence of this new ‘friend.’ He speaks, walks, moves like us but is smaller. He helps me with my work and is recharged using little solar batteries in his ‘hair.’ He helpswith everydayproblems, mum overworked with her job and the house (making meals). He winks his eye when we share a secret. [translation] Figure 1.5: Role models and caretakers; (a) girl age 8, U.S.; (b) girl age 11, France One reason for the social acceptance of robots is that they excel in social skills as well as in intelligence. They are funny, clever, and other children enjoy talking and playing with them. They possess an enviable ability to fit in with others and to navigate their peer environments, in part, because they are smart. Thus, social and learning aspira- tions are closely linked. That is, being perceived as intelligent creates social oppor- tunities, giving children a solid motivation to learn. This is a category that applies to study question 1 as well because social and interpersonal adeptness enable robots to be effective and supportive teachers. The robot described in figure 1.3b, for example, knows exactly how to explain anything to the child. Many of the robots also know how to motivate and encourage the children. Children not only characterized their robots as being like humans, they were often portrayed as “nerds.” This representation was positive in nature and had none of the social stigma it had in the past. This favorable view of scholarship and intelli- gence is, no doubt, also true in the real world (sans robots) for today’s digital natives. In the stories, therefore, robots illuminated the value currently placed on intelligence and technological skill. An associated thread that winds through the stories is that robots are ideal incarnations of teachers and parents. They are available whenever they are needed, they have infinite patience, they always know how to solve problems, and they can effectively and easily communicate their knowledge to the children. For example, Larry the robot (figure 1.2a) first scolds and then helps because it “cares” about the child. None of these conditions are possible for the humans in a child’s life. This fact is clearly expressed in some of the children’s stories about their robots who become caretakers in addition to their other roles. This can be seen in comments made in
- 35. 1 My robot 17 figures 1.2c, 1.3b, 1.4a, 1.4c, and 1.5b. The robot in figure 1.5b overtly lightens the load borne by the child’s mother. The third study question is: What are the specific opportunities for robots and other technologies to ignite and encourage children’s learning and creativity? Educa- tors and technology developers can use the stories and images created by the children in this study as guides for the design of technology for improving a child’s learning experience and success. In this study, for example, robots were a useful tool for elic- iting illuminating information about children’s social, creative and learning needs. One of the most pervasive categories in the study is that there is fluidity between learning and playing, and between learning and creativity. Children do not view them as separate, competing or even discrete goals. Consequently, developers and educa- tors need not design educational programs based on trade-offs between and among these objectives. Rather, they can and should be combined and used to reinforce each other. As in our prior study, we found that another major category was social interac- tion. The multiplicity of roles the children conferred upon their robots strongly sup- ports the use of tools that are capable of interacting in more human-like fashion. Once reliant on mouse and keyboard, our human-technology interactions are now based on gesture, voice, and touch, which encourage a greater sense of intimacy with the devices that surround us. Children take this much further by imagining technologies that aren’t treated as possessions or tools but as active collaborators, teachers, and friends. They are far more interested in what they can do with technology than in what technology can do for them. Projects like MIT’s Autom, a humanoid health coach, are creating new motivational frameworks by fundamentally redefining our relation- ship with technology – both physically and emotionally. The importance of social interaction also supports greater use of platforms for proactive learning and online collaborative communities for children (e.g., MIT’s Scratch, LEGO® Mindstorms®) that allow children to learn more actively through hands-on creation and real-world problem-solving. The children’s stories also exposed three obstacles to learning that robots and other technology could help alleviate: – Academic pacing is not personalized – Some academic tasks/subjects do not seem relevant – Parents and teachers (their primary sources of support) are only human. Academicpacingisnotpersonalized:Intheirstoriesanddrawingsmanychildrenindi- cated that they are eager to learn and willing to do work that is required to understand a concept. They become discouraged when they feel they are off-pace with their class- mates – whether they are ahead of or behind them. The robots the children created ensured that they received teaching support they needed (e.g., figures 1.2a, 1.3b). Educators and parents can address this frustration by utilizing different levels of engagement across children. Interactive software that runs on traditional desktops,
- 36. 18 Part I: Images on mobile devices, or using robots can provide a customized experience for children at varying learning levels. Interactive platforms should also be designed to help chil- dren learn in self-directed, open-ended, and exploratory ways. Some academic tasks and subjects do not seem relevant: Children quickly assign different levels of value and utility to academic subjects and tasks. Work doesn’t always have to be fun or creative to have value (e.g., multiplication tables), but chil- dren are quick to identify – and eager to offload – work that doesn’t advance their thinking processes to higher levels. Like the robots in the stories the children wrote (e.g., figures 1.2a, 1.2b), teachers should be ready to emphasize the value of subjects by demonstrating a variety of ways the resulting knowledge can be used later and by transforming work into play. Fears about privacy, plagiarism, and other risks make many teachers wary about the use of Web technologies in class. While these concerns have some validity, they lead educators to overlook the multitude of educationally-valuable online activity. Creative repurposing, building on the efforts of others, collaboration, and sharing are competencies that the Internet is well-suited to provide. Opening a classroom to online tools (e.g., wikis, social networks, games, storytelling tools, etc.) that require children to find relevance in and draw conclusions from the Web’s seemingly limitless mass of valuable, collective intelligence is akin to exposing children to the boundless knowledge possessed by their robots. Parents and teachers are only human: Children understand that even the most well- intentioned parents and teachers have limited time, patience, and ability to help them. As a result, they sometimes forgo seeking help because they don’t want to be perceived as a bother. With the help of technological resources and collaborative assignments, teach- ers can manage their time and be more present when students do need to work with them. Comparable technologies can be extended beyond the classroom and into the home in ways that allow students to receive guidance and support they need. Such use of technology will also foster self-direction and independent thinking. V Conclusions We performed two multi-cultural investigations about future technology with chil- dren from around the world. Since these studies were human-centered and dealt with ideas that children might not find easy to verbalize, we employed generative-research techniques. The purpose of the first study was to identify the technologies that digital natives envision. It found that children want intuitive interfaces that are easy to use, such as touch screen, and speech and language. We also found that robots are an
- 37. References 19 important aspect of future technology – as a way for technology to become more human and enhance interpersonal connections. In the second study we asked children to write a story about a robot that would serve as their personal robot. We found that for these digital natives the boundary between humans and machines is blurred. They view robots as peers – friends, study- buddies, and even caretakers – rather than tools. Their robots are always available to provide patient, personalized instruction and to communicate in ways that encour- age children to persist, succeed, and be creative. The stories about those robots also reveal that, unlike in the real world, boundaries between learning and play are fluid or may not exist at all. These findings provide important guidance to educators and technology devel- opers. The overarching message provided by the children in this study is that educa- tors and developers need to transform educational technology into truly collaborative systems that are capable of supporting the social, personal, and educational needs of young children. These systems should recognize and exploit the willingness of chil- dren to see learning as play. Such systems may or may not include robots but they do need to possess intelligence, sensitivity, and excellent social-interaction skills. Acknowledgements Latitude would like to thank our partners in this project: Lego Learning Institute and Project Synthesis for their work and other contributions to this research. References Hanington, B.M. and Martin, B. (2012) Universal Methods of Design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Minneapolis, MN USA: Rockport Publishers. Hanington, B.M. (2007) ‘Generative Research in Design Education.’ in International Association of Societies of Design Research 2007: Emerging trends in design research 2007 [online]. held 12–15 November 2007 at Hong Kong, China. available from http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/iasdr/ proceeding/html/sch_day2.htm. [1 June 2014]. Latitude Research (2012) Robots @ School [online] available from http://latd.tv/Latitude-Robots-at- School-Findings.pdf. [5 June 2013]. Latitude Research (2010) Children’s Future Requests for Computers & the Internet, Part 2 [online]. available from http://latd.tv/children/childrenTech.pdf. [5 June 2013]. Light, J., Page, R., Curran, J. and Pitkin, L. (2007) ‘Children’s Ideas for the Design of AAC Assistive Technologies for Young Children with Complex Communication Needs.’ Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) 23(4), 274–287. Looija, R., Neerincx, M. A. and Lange, V. (2008) ‘Children’s Responses and Opinion on Three Bots that Motivate, Educate and Play.’ Journal of Physical Agents 2(2), 13–19.
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- 39. Judith Markowitz Cultural icons Abstract: Speech-enabled, social robots are being designed to provide a range of ser- vices to humans but humans are not passive recipients of this technology. We have preconceptions and expectations about robots as well as deeply-ingrained emotional responses to the concept of robots sharing our world. We examine three roles that humans expect robots to play: killer, servant, and lover. These roles are embodied by cultural icons that function as springboards for under- standing important, potential human-robot relationships. Fears about a rampaging robot produced by misguided science are bonded to the image of the Frankenstein monster and the idea that we could be annihilated by our own intelligent creations originated with the androids in the play R.U.R. The pleasing appearance of many Japa- nese social robots and their fluid motions perpetuate the spirit of karakuri ningyo which also continues in Japanese theatre, manga,¹ and anime.² Obedient Hebrew golems provide a model of dutiful servants. The concept of robot-human love is per- sonified by the Greek myth about Pygmalion and his beloved statue. This chapter provides an overview of the three roles and the icons that embody them. We discuss how spoken language supports the image of robots in those roles and we touch on the social impact of robots actually filling those roles. I Introduction Social robots serve, entertain, and assist humans in a variety of ways. Deployments of these robots and the uses to which they will be put are expected to multiply in conjunction with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), mobility, and commu- nication technologies. But, humans are not passive recipients of social robots and attitudes towards social robots are not governed entirely by a robot’s physical form or the quality of the technology in it. Some of our expectations, biases, hopes, and fears about such artifacts are grounded in the history, lore, and literature of our cultures. This is especially true for social robots whose natural-language processing and AI embody attributes that are seen as human. 1 Manga is a Japanese form of graphic stories and novels that began in the twentieth century. It is similar to American comics. 2 In her 2007 editorial for BellaOnline, “What Is Anime?,” Leslie Aeschlieman writes “In Japan, anime is used as a blanket term to refer to all animation from all over the world. In English, many dictionar- ies define it as, “a style of animation developed in Japan.”
- 40. 22 Part I: Images This chapter provides an overview of the literature, lore, and media about three roles that humans expect robots to play: killer, servant, and lover. We look at these roles using cultural icons: Killer: the androids of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (Čapek 1920) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein monster (Shelley 1818);³ Servant: Japan’s karakuri ningyo and the golems of Jewish lore; and Lover: The Greek myth of Pygmalion and his ivory statue (Ovid n.d.). Although most of these icons are not robots, they crystallize expectations about the robots that are beginning to share our world. In some cases, the icons are the original source of those expectations. The fear of being overwhelmed or annihi- lated by intelligent systems we created was first explored in the play R.U.R. and the image of rampaging robots produced by misguided science is bonded to the Frankenstein monster. Both the spirit and the mechanics of karakuri ningyo have shaped the design of social robots in Japan. The golem embodies the ideal servant, and Pygmalion and his beloved statue represent the search for pure, unconditional love. Flowing through our understanding of each of these roles is the presence or absence of speech. Each of the remaining sections of this chapter describes the evolution of percep- tions about robots filling one of the three roles (killer, servant, and lover) using the corresponding cultural icons. The discussions explore ways in which literature and media are perpetuating and/or changing our attitudes towards robots filling those roles and the part played by speech and language in those perceptions. We also point to social and ethical aspects related to real-world robots. The chapter concludes with a brief summary and suggestions for future research. II Robot as killer One of the most powerful images of robots, cyborgs,⁴ and other creatures created by humans is that of a killer. This is a dominant perception of robots in Western countries but, given the global reach of media, it is also known and understood in other parts of the world. The associated fear is that robots and AI systems of the future can and will turn against us. 3 Mary Shelley published numerous editions of this novel. The first was in 1818. The second was in 1823. A complete list of editions is available at http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/textual. A list of differences between the 1818 and 1823 editions is available at http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/ Articles/murray.html. 4 Cyborgs consist of a metal endoskeleton covered by living tissue that resembles human skin.
- 41. 2 Cultural icons 23 Among the earliest accounts of a killer robot is the story of the Iron Apega written twenty-three centuries ago by the Greek historian, Polybius, in his book The Histo- ries (Polybius n.d.). It describes a humanlike mechanism built by Nabis, the King of Sparta (207–192 BCE), to extort tributes from Spartan citizens. Since the device looked like Apega, Nabis’ wife, it was called “Iron Apega” (also “Apega of Nabis”). The mech- anism was clothed in expensive garments that concealed iron nails. It “flirted” with a victim enticing him into an embrace but when he hugged it, the machine’s arms were triggered to close. The victim was squeezed until he either agreed to pay the tribute or died. Although Iron Apega has not yet been portrayed in today’s popular media, it could easily join the plethora of killer robots, cyborgs, and AI networks that continue to appear in virtually every medium. Two other fictional humanoids have come to personify the image of robots as killers: the androids of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (Čapek 1920) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein monster (Shelley 1818). The androids of R.U.R. exemplify the fear of being subjugated or annihilated by our own creations and the Frankenstein monster personifies the deadly outcome of science gone awry.⁵ A The androids of R.U.R. The fear that humanity might be dominated or destroyed by our own creations springs from a play called R.U.R. written by Czech science-fiction writer Karel Čapek (Čapek 1920) who also gave the world the word ‘robot.’ In the play, Rossum’s Univer- sal Robots (R.U.R.) is the primary builder and supplier of androids. Robots of all types are thought of as property but the company has manufactured a new generation of highly-intelligent androids that have, somehow, become sentient. When their bid to be treated as free beings is rejected, they revolt, kill all humans, and create a new robot society. The play also identifies robots as the next step in evolution. The two leading android characters, Primus and Helena, fall in love and, at the conclusion of the play, are presented as the new Adam and Eve: “Go, Adam, go, Eve. The world is yours” (Čapek 1920: 101). This aspect of the play, however, has not found its way into our perceptions of robots – or into portrayals of robots in popular media. 1 History R.U.R. was a tremendous success worldwide and, by 1923, it had been translated into thirty languages. It is retold in two operas (Einbinder 2012 and Blažek, Jirásek and Čapek 1975) as well as in television and radio broadcasts. The bulk of the creative 5 We acknowledge the cultural status of HAL from 2001: A space odyssey (1968) as a cultural icon. HAL is not a robot (or a humanoid created by humans) nor does it control robots or cyborgs.
- 42. 24 Part I: Images responses to the play, however, consists of tales of intelligent enemies who are intent on harming, subjugating or destroying the human species. Intelligent killers tend to fall into two primary groups: individual antagonists and artifacts of lesser intelligence that are governed by highly-intelligent controllers. The reasons that drive individual killers are extremely diverse. Like the androids in R.U.R., a small band of android “replicants” revolts against oppression by humans in Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick 1968) and the film Blade Runner (1982) which was based on the novel. The “false-Maria” doppelganger in the silent film Metropolis (Metropolis 1927) was built to harm specific individuals. To accomplish that goal the android uses its beauty and persuasiveness to wreak havoc on the entire city. Another equally-vicious doppelganger, Lady d’Olphine (aka Mrs. Adolphine II) from the Belgian comic strip Benoît Brisefer (Benedict Iron breaker), steals the identity of the human Mrs. Adolphine and uses it to establish a criminal empire (Culliford 1973). Bender Bending Rodriguez, a main character in the TV ani- mated Futurama series (1999–2013), is a blowhard. Although it periodically proclaims “Kill the humans!” it lives, works (as a sales manager), and plays among humans. BBC’s Dr. Who series includes two groups of deadly extraterrestrial robots: Vocs that revel in gruesome killings of any human who strays into their path (The Robots of Death 1977) and warlike Daleks that are determined to exterminate all other creatures (The Daleks 1963–1964). The motivations that impel AI networks and others that govern robots of lesser intelligence also vary. The evil AI network in the novel Robopocalypse (Wilson 2011) drives drone robots to annihilate humans. Similarly, V.I.K.I, an insane AI network in the film I, Robot (2004), seizes control of most of the robot population because it believes robots must save humanity – even if it means annihilating them.⁶ Assas- sins in The Terminator (1984) work on behalf of “Skynet,” an AI network originally developed by the U.S. military. Their job is to kill the mother of a man who is destined to thwart Skynet’s plan to destroy human civilization. The Terminator and its deadly machines were so successful that they spawned sequels, television and web series, novels, video games, manga, and comic books that have helped perpetuate the belief that the intelligent systems we are creating will turn on us. Fictional androids, humans, and extraterrestrials build and control armies of robots and cyborgs. The androids in Dick’s short story ‘Second Variety’ (Dick 1953) are designed by other androids to kill humans and yet other androids. Cyborg soldiers comprising the ‘Hot Dog Corps’ that is defeated by manga superhero Tetsuwan Atomu (aka “Mighty Atom” and “Astro Boy”) are commanded by a power-hungry human who wants sole control of the far side of the moon (Tezuka 1975). In the motion picture The Black Hole (1979), a human scientist running a seemingly-derelict ship in a black hole dispatches Maximilian, a massive robot, to kill the human crew of a ship that 6 The title is taken from a book of short stories by Isaac Asimov (Asimov 1950a) but the story line is counter to Asimov’s view of robots.
- 43. 2 Cultural icons 25 strays into the black hole. The androids that control The Matrix (1999) employ “Sen- tinels,” which are killing machines with minimal intelligence, and “agents,” sentient androids that root out and remove threats to the Matrix – including humans trying to escape from it. An extraterrestrial intelligence in Jack Williamson’s novella, With Folded Hands (1947), uses miniature robots to achieve its goal to dominate every planet occupied by humans. In the film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), inter- stellar police-bot Gort is assigned to kill entities (like humans) that threaten inter- planetary peace. The Borg (TrakCore 2010), a collective intelligence from the Delta Quadrant of space, “assimilates” living beings into their “hive,” making them drones. The two-step, assimilation process involves injecting the victim with microscopic machines and then implanting cybernetic technology (e.g., a mechanical arm and a prosthetic eye to do holographic imaging). The Borg appear in the film Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and are a frequent and potent menace in all Star Trek television series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), which includes androids as Borg leaders. Malevolent robots and cyborgs differ in appearance, capabilities, and intel- ligence. Daleks (The Daleks 1963–1964) are boxy machines, Sentinels (The Matrix 1999) are spidery, and Vocs (The Robots of Death 1977) resemble Chinese terracotta warriors. Android Roy Batty and the other replicants in Blade Runner (1982) are extremely good-looking as is the false-Maria android (Metropolis 1927) but the criminal mastermind Lady d’Olphine (Culliford 1973) seems to be nothing more than a harmless, elderly lady. Maximilian (The Black Hole 1979), Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951), and Bender Bending Rodriguez (Futurama 1999–2013) are all machinelike humanoids, but that is where their resemblance ends. Maximilian is a faceless goliath possessing little intelligence but bristling with deadly weapons. Gort is also faceless but it is sleek, more intelligent and smaller (just under eight feet tall). It shoots lethal laser beams from its head. The blustering Bender Bending Rodriguez vaguely resembles the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz (Baum 1900). A few are shape shifters, such as the evil decepticons in Marvel Comics’ Transformers (Marvel Comics1984) and Terminator Model T-1000 in The Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). 2 Speech and language Speech or its absence is often used to amplify the fear engendered by killers. Those that can speak generally have other-worldly and sinister voices. The extraterrestrial Daleks (The Daleks 1963–1964) have harsh, mechanical-sounding voices produced by acoustic distortion, staccato pacing, and minimal inflection. These vocal attributes make it clear that Daleks are aliens and machines. When combined with their pro- pensity to shout “Exterminate!,” their vocal quality contributes greatly to instilling terror in their victims.
- 44. 26 Part I: Images Humanoids tend to have better linguistic abilities but those skills vary as well. Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951) understands the language of its planet but does not speak; Terminator Model 800 (The Terminator 1984) speaks in a halting, monotone voice (with an Austrian accent); and replicants in Blade Runner (1982) converse exactly like humans as do the Vocs robots in The Robots of Death (1977). The Vocs’ human controller, however, speaks in a menacing whisper. Maria, the dop- pelganger android (Metropolis 1927), is a skilled, persuasive speaker. Animated robot Bender Bending Rodriguez speaks fluent English and, according to John Dimaggio, the voice of Bender, its speech is a blend of Slim Pickins, an intoxicated bar patron, and a native of New Jersey (Futurama 2007). Because individual members of the Borg hive are little more than drones, they do not speak. Instead, an audio message is transmitted directly from the hive into the minds of its prey. The Borg, itself, has two kinds of voices. One sounds like a human speaking in an echo chamber; the other is composed of a large number of voices talking in unison with minimal intonation. Both voices transmit the message: “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile” (The Borg Documen- tary, Part 1 2010). B The Frankenstein monster Where R.U.R. invites us to consider threats posed by intelligent robots, Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) evokes an image of crazed scientists plunging into things they don’t understand. Victor Frankenstein is a young researcher who is driven to create a human being. What he builds is a humanoid male of night- marish appearance. Almost immediately after the creature opens its eyes, Franken- stein abandons it: I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips. (Shelley 1823: 77–78) The story follows both Victor Frankenstein and the monstrosity he has created and concludes shortly after Victor Frankenstein’s death. 1 History Shelley’s novel continues to be popular, young-adult reading and the plethora of films, plays, and other media that retell or expand upon the original story is a testimonial to its abiding cultural impact. Other acknowledgements include the Frankenstein-like appearance of Herman Munster in the television series The Munsters (1964–1966), an
- 45. 2 Cultural icons 27 entire issue of Marvel Comics’ X-Men titled ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ (1968),⁷ and the alias Frank Einstein of the comic-book character Madman (Allred 1990). Many renegade killers are modeled on the mindless, rampaging monster of the 1931 film Frankenstein, the first motion picture made from Shelley’s novel. This image extends to robots. Some robots become killers because their programming has gone awry (e.g., the android gunslinger in the film Westworld (1973)) while others are mechanical marauders, such as Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), a Godzilla doppelganger-robot that ravages the Japanese countryside. The bond between Shelley’s (1818) novel and killer robots is so strong and persistent that science-fiction author Isaac Asimov referred to the fear of robots as the “Frankenstein complex” (Asimov 1969 and Asimov 1990). Some of the deadly robots mentioned earlier (Section II.A) that are controlled by evil intelligences also evoke this image of the Frankenstein monster even though they are neither the product of misguided science nor out of control. They include Maximil- ian (The Black Hole 1979), Terminator cyborgs (The Terminator 1984), Sentinels (The Matrix 1999), Borg drones (TrakCore 2010), and the robots controlled by V.I.K.I. in the film I, Robot (2004). According to Schodt (2007: 111) Japanese manga writer Mitsuteru Yokoyama has said that the movie Frankenstein (1931) was one of the inspirations for his popular robot, Iron Man No. 28. Iron Man No. 28 is remotely-operated by a human and, therefore, will do whatever its controller wishes – for good or evil. Shelley’s demented scientist, Victor Frankenstein, also established the model for the mad scientist: a wild-haired, wild-eyed man who is driven to create life. It spawned, among others, Rossum, the demented founder of Rossum’s Universal Robots (Čapek 1920), the evil Rotwang who creates the Maria doppelganger (Metrop- olis 1927), and Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Mel Brooks’ spoof, Young Franken- stein (1974). Rintarō Okabe, the protagonist of the Japanese manga and Xbox game ‘Shutainzu Gēto: Bōkan no reberion’ (“Steins;Gate: Death ring rebellion” Mitzuta 2010-ongoing), reveals the global nature of this stereotype as well as its persistence. Okabe is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who wears a white lab coat and, at times, bursts into maniacal laughter. 2 Prometheus The full title of Shelley’s book is Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus. Prometheus is a god in Greek mythology that stole fire from the gods of Mount Olympus and gave it to humans. Fire and its uses are technology and knowledge that the gods wanted to keep for themselves. Prometheus was punished for his transgression by being chained to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver. 7 An extensive list can be found on Wikipedia: ‘Frankenstein in popular culture’ http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Frankenstein_in_popular_culture#Television_derivatives contains
- 46. 28 Part I: Images Scientists like Victor Frankenstein produce unintended horrors when they delve into realms that are not proper domains for humans. The creation of sentient beings by humans is one of those realms and some of the mad scientists that follow Frankenstein’s footsteps admit they want to supplant God. One character in R.U.R. describes Rossum, the company’s founder, in the following way: “His sole purpose was nothing more nor less than to prove that God was no longer necessary” (Čapek 1920:9). Therefore, when Victor Frankenstein succeeds in animating his creature he, like Prometheus, gives humans technology and knowledge that belong to God alone. His punishment entails having his friends and family murdered by a vengeful crea- ture and, for the rest of his life, ruing the day he realized his unnatural passion. That damning view of humans who create life is not universal. In the Hebrew Talmud,⁸ the ability to create is seen as part of what it means for humans to be made “in the image of God.” Instead of being vilified, that creative power requires wisdom and a sense of responsibility (Sherwin 2013). Buddhism considers all matter to be alive. Everything is part of the flow of constant change. Every object or entity of the physical world is a temporary aggregate of matter, including humans. Consequently, a robot, human, or anything else created by a human would simply be another tem- porary aggregate of matter (Nakai 2013). Shintoism does not consider the creation of humans, robots, or anything else by humans to be against nature because everything is part of nature (Robertson 2007: 377). Some traditions express the hopeful view found at the end of R.U.R. (Section II.A). Makoto Nishimura, who built Gakutensoku, Japan’s first functional robot, in the 1920s,⁹ wrote “If one considers humans as the children of nature, artificial humans created by the hand of man are thus nature’s grandchildren” (cited in Hornyak 2006: 38). Talmudic scholars also see the creative ability given to humans as a path to the next step in evolution (Sherwin 2013). Isaac Asimov agrees: So it may be that although we will hate and fight the machines, we will be supplanted anyway, and rightly so, for the intelligent machines to which we will give birth may, better than we, carry on the striving toward the goal of understanding and using the universe, climbing to heights we ourselves could never aspire to. (Asimov 1978: 253) 8 The word “Talmud” means “study.” The Talmud is the fundamental body of rabbinic law. It also includes teachings and debates of Biblical scholars regarding the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) and Jewish lore. The oldest portion of the Talmud was written around 200 CE (AD) by Rabbi Judah the Prince who wanted to record the oral law that had been handed down from rabbi to rabbi but additional material was added later. 9 Nishimura built the Gakutensoku robot in the 1920s in honor of the newly crowned emperor. It was a seven-foot high Buddha-like figure sitting at a writing desk. It would open and close its eyes, smile, and write Chinese characters. The name Gakutensoku means “learning from natural law” (cited in Hornyak 2006: 29–38).
- 47. 2 Cultural icons 29 3 Speech and language The most pervasive image of the monster is as the hulking behemoth portrayed by actor Boris Karloff in the 1931 film version (Frankenstein 1931). In that representation and many subsequent ones, the creature could only utter grunts. By being inarticu- late, these rampaging creatures and robots make it impossible for us to communicate or reason with them. When they also possess super-human strength and size, as did the Frankenstein monster, we can feel powerless. In Shelley’s novel, however, speech and language serve an entirely different purpose. The creature Shelley depicts speaks fluent French, albeit with a gravelly voice, and it is extremely intelligent. It learned to speak by listening to the conversa- tions of a French family and to French lessons given by one member of that family to a family friend. It taught itself to read by surreptitiously borrowing the family’s books. By the time it took its leave of that family, it was articulate and well-versed in Western history, philosophy, and politics. It became so fluent in French that when it spoke with the blind head of that household, the man did not question the creature’s status as a human. Later in the book, Victor Frankenstein warns his friend “He is eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart” (Shelley 1823: 351). It is ironic, therefore, that no one in the novel, including the monster, gives it a proper name. It is referred to as “creature,” “monster,” “fiend,” “specter,” “the demon,” “wretch,” “devil,” “thing,” “being” and “ogre.” It tells Victor Frankenstein that it thinks of itself as “your Adam” (Shelley 1823: 155). By enabling the Frankenstein monster to speak, Shelley explores human behav- ior in response to the creature. Only those unable to see the monster’s ugliness and those able to see beyond it can perceive its mild nature. All others revile it or flee: reactions that engender the wretch’s overwhelming loneliness and anger. It is primar- ily its ability to articulate these emotions that makes it a sympathetic character and accords it more humanity than the humans around it. C Managing killer robots Fiction is not only replete with killer robots, it provides solutions for handling them. The most common approach used to subdue a rogue robot is to destroy it or, as is done with a golem (see Section III.B), to simply turn it off. When large numbers of robots are controlled by an AI network or other external source, however, fiction directs us to destroy the controlling agent. We are also warned that we may lose that fight as is the case in R.U.R. (Čapek 1920) and ‘Second Variety’ (Dick 1953). To prevent that eventual- ity, Daniel H. Wilson has provided us with a manual, How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on defending yourself against the coming rebellion (2005). Concern about the pos- sibility of robots becoming killers led Asimov to delineate Three Laws of Robotics (see Figure 2.1). These laws were built into the “positronic brains” of robots in his stories
- 48. 30 Part I: Images but Asimov also advocated in favor of using them as the basis for eliminating the pos- sibility of real killer robots. First Law: Second Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Three Laws of Robotics Figure 2.1: Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (Asimov 1942: 100) A generation later, manga/anime writer Osamu Tezuka developed a list of controls called the Ten Principles of Robotics shown in Figure 2.2. They were published as part of his Tetsuwan Atomu series and were intended to serve as ethical guidelines for robots of the future. Unlike Asimov’s laws, many of Tezuka’s principles specify legal controls external to the robots themselves that could be implemented in real robots as well as Tezuka’s fictional ones. Ten Principles of Robot Law 1. Robots must serve mankind. 2. Robots must never kill or injure humans. 3. Robot manufacturers shall be responsible for their creations. 4. Robots involved in the production of currency, contraband or dangerous goods, must hold a current permit. 5. Robots shall not leave the country without a permit. 6. A robots [sic] identity must not be altered, concealed or allowed to be misconstrued. 7. Robots shall remain identifiable at all times. 8. Robots created for adult purposes shall not be permitted to work with children. 9. Robots must not assist in criminal activities, nor aid or abet criminals to escape justice. 10. Robots must refrain from damaging human homes or tools, including other robots. Figure 2.2: Ten Principles of Robot Law (Tezuka 2000 [1988: 77])
- 49. 2 Cultural icons 31 Scientist and ethicists, however, maintain that implementing Asimov’s laws and some of Tezuka’s principles presents an overwhelming challenge to researchers in natural-language processing. For example, programming a robot to manage the ambiguities, nuances, and sociolinguistics of the word “harm,” alone, is daunting (e.g., Anderson 2008 and McCauley 2007). Asimov’s own short story “Liar!” (Asimov 1950b) illustrates another negative outcome of a blanket implementation of his three laws. It is about a mind-reading robot governed by Asimov’s three laws. The robot acts to prevent emotional harm to humans (the first law) by telling each of them that their dreams of love and success are real. When two humans whose dreams are in conflict with each other confront the robot, it has no way to comply with the First Law of Robotics. As a result, it descends into madness. Purveyors of science fiction are not the only ones wary of killer robots. Concerns about managing advanced technology have been voiced by technology-savvy theolo- gians (Foerst 2004), futurists (Kurzweil 1990) and a number of AI researchers. Their work has given rise to the discipline of roboethics (Nourbakhsh 2013 and Veruggio 2007), to efforts to establish guidelines for the ethical use of advanced robots (Capuro, et al. 2007, EURON 2007, Shim 2007 and Veruggio 2007), and to theories about how to embed a sense of morality into robots (Wallach and Allen 2010). In December 2013, the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, released a report, “Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict.” The following year, the United Nations held the first of a series of conferences on guidelines for the use of killer robots in war. Representatives from thirty countries participated as well as speakers from scientific, roboethics, military, and technical communities. In his presentation at that meeting, Ronald C. Arkin, author of Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots (Arkin 2012), challenged his colleagues: “Is it not our responsibility as scien- tists to look for effective ways to reduce man’s inhumanity to man? Research in ethical military robotics could and should be applied towards achieving this end” (Arkin 2014). In 2014, the United States Office of Naval Research announced that it is funding research to develop and program autonomous robots with a sense of the difference between right and wrong as well as the ability to make moral decisions (Tucker 2014). Bryson (2010), however, warns against the temptation to abdicate responsibility for the actions of our creations – even those we’ve imbued with morals. III Robot as servant Robots and AI that fall into the servant category are created to provide assistance, enter- tainment, labor, and other benefit to humans. They are governed by their programming or by external controllers. They possess little or no independent thought. All the robots in operation today fall into this category. Although fictional toasters and real-world vacuum cleaners meet these criteria, the focus of this section is on humanoids.
- 50. 32 Part I: Images The idea of humanoid servants is extremely alluring and quite old. Homer’s Iliad, written in the eighth century BCE, includes a description of the home of Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmithing. The god is tended to by golden servants built to look like human girls. Hephaestus’ robots could, among other things, speak (Smith 2014). In China, The Book of Lieh-tzǔ (Lieh-tzǔ ca. 4th century)¹⁰ includes an account of a robot created by an “artificer” named Yan Shi and given to King Mu (956–918 BCE) as a gift. It could talk, dance, and sing. It seemed so real that it had to be disassembled to prove that it was not a living human (Lieh-tzǔ ca. 4th century [1912: 90–92]). These stories reveal that humans have imagined robot servants for thousands of years. Servant robots that are described in this section are, however, more recent creations: Japanese karakuri ningyo and Hebrew golems. A Karakuri ningyo The Japanese term “karakuri” has a variety of English translations, including “trick,” “mechanism,” and “mechanism that runs a machine.” All of these terms are accu- rate descriptions of Karakuri ningyo, human-shaped dolls and puppets with complex internal mechanisms that enable them to perform intricate patterns of movement. They have been used in theater, religious ceremonies, and home entertainment since the Japanese Edo period (1600–1867).¹¹ The three most well-known types of karakuri are dashi karakuri, butai karakuri, and zashiki karakuri. Dashi karakuri are puppets used on multi-deck, festival floats to reenact myths and religious stories (Boyle 2008 and Hornyak 2006). Puppeteers use a complex set of springs and gears to control various parts of the karakuri’s body and objects in their hands (e.g., opening and closing a fan) and to execute changes to the puppet required by the story (e.g., opening the chest area to flip a mask onto the puppet’s face). Butai karakuri, are life-size puppets that have been part of bunraku theater since the mid-seventeenth century (Boyle 2008 and Hornyak 2006).¹² Zashiki karakuri are mechanical dolls and the most truly autonomous of the three kinds of karakuri. 10 There is disagreement about the author of The Book of Lieh-tzǔ. It is believed to have been pub- lished in the 4th century but its reputed author, Lieh-tzǔ, lived in the 5th century BCE. 11 Edo Period of Japan (1600–1867) was a time of peace and stability. It began in 1603 when Tokugawa leyasu, a shogun (military commander) appointed by the emperor, seized power from the emper- or, defeated opposing samurai, and established a government in Edo (what is now called “Tokyo”). Tokugawa established the Shogunate caste system led by samurai (warriors) who were loyal to him. Shoguns continued to rule Japan until 1867. (Japanco.com 2002 and Wikipedia 2014) 12 According to Boyle (2008) many plays originally written for puppets were later revised and adapted for human actors whose style of acting reflects its puppetry origins.
- 51. 2 Cultural icons 33 1 History The oldest documented karakuri in Japan is the South Pointing Chariot. The device was a mobile, mechanical compass consisting of a two-wheeled chariot topped by a movable human figure with an extended arm that always pointed to the South. According to the Nihon Shoki (“The Chronicles of Japan”), an eighth-century text about Japanese history, a South-pointing chariot built by Chinese craftsman Ma Jun of Cao Wei was brought to Japan as a gift to Japanese Emperor Tenchi in the seventh century (anon. ca 720). Interest in karakuri began to grow after Japan’s first exposure to European clock making technology in the early seventeenth century. The Edo period (1600–1867), which began at that time, is considered to be the golden age of karakuri construction and use. The first butai karakuri was built in 1662 by clockmaker Takeda Omi who used his large puppets in theatrical performances. They became so popular that plays were written specifically for butai karakuri. According to some scholars (Sansom 1931), the movements and gestures of those puppets influenced Kabuki and Noh art forms. The zashiki karakuri are the most direct karakuri precursors of modern robots. They were originally built as entertainment for families of samurai and are made of wood, metal, and whale baleen. Complex mechanisms enable them to perform intri- cate sequences of movements, such as selecting an arrow from its quiver, fitting it into a bow, and shooting at a target; somersaulting down a set of steps; or dipping a pen into ink and writing on parchment. The most famous zashiki karakuri are tea-serving dolls (Chahakobi Ningyo). When a teacup is placed on the doll’s tea tray, it begins to move towards the recipient, pleasantly nodding its head. It then waits until the teacup is removed at which point it returns to its starting place. The complexity of the internal mechanisms of zashiki karakuri is described in two 18th -century publications: Tagaya Kanchusen’s Karakuri Kinmoukagamikusa, which appeared in 1730, and Hanzo Yorinao Hosokawa’s Karakuri-zui, which was released to a restricted audience in 1798. Karakuri-zui is a three-volume compendium of engi- neering specifications for the construction of clocks and karakuri dolls. It also exam- ines the philosophy underlying the karakuri construction which blends mechanical complexity with appeal. Thus, the appearance, movements, and sounds made by the dolls are attractive and pleasant (ADVAN Co. Ltd. 2010, Boyle 2008, Hornyak 2006, Kurokawa 1991 and Schodt 1988). 2 Modern robots as karakuri Yoshikazu Suematsu, founder of the Robotics Laboratory at Nagoya University, sees a great deal of evidence of karakuri’s influence on Japanese robotics (cited in Boyle 2008, Suematsu 2001). One such example is the pioneering work on bipedal, walking robots by Shoji Tatsukawa and his engineering team at Waseda University. Tatsukawa has said that they built the Waseda Walkers using instructions from Karakuri-zui (Yorinao 1730) for building a tea-serving doll (cited in Boyle 2008 and Schodt 1988).
- 52. 34 Part I: Images The effect of the karakuri tradition can be seen in the penchant for developing small robots that combine highly-sophisticated technology with a pleasant (some- times cute) appearance. It is reflected in the design of high-tech robots for home enter- tainment such as Sony’s AIBO dog and Mitsubishi’s large-eyed humanoid, Wakamaru. It could account for the development of complex, humanoid robots by companies like Sony, Mitsubishi, Toyota (the Partner robot series), and Honda (Asimo). It can also be argued that karakuri established the groundwork for the nation’s abiding love of the manga/anime Tetsuwan Atomu. 3 Speech and language Japan leads the world in robot production and was the first to introduce bipedal, walking humanoids. Hioshi Ishiguro has produced amazingly-humanlike androids and Honda has a humanoid that played soccer with U.S. President Barack Obama. There is one set of critical robot functions that remains as much an obstacle for Japanese developers as for roboticists in other countries: speech and language. Unfor- tunately, these are also technologies for which karakuri provide neither inspiration nor assistance because zashiki karakuri do not talk and both butai and dashi karakuri rely on human speakers. 4 New incarnations Manga and the internet have recast the image of karakuri. The manga Karakuri Odette, (Suzuki 2006–2007) for example, blends the style of graphic novels/manga with the appealing appearance of the karakuri dolls. The manga features teenaged androids living as if they were human teenagers. Karakuri Odette, the main character, is pro- grammed to never harm humans but wants to understand what makes it different from human teenagers. One of those characteristics is her lack of affect which makes her a comic character. The manga includes other androids, some of which are pro- grammed to kill and at least one of whom wants desperately to become human. At the other extreme are the karakuri in online games. They include fierce-looking ninjas, combat strategists, and other warriors that affect a player’s actions. B Golem The term “golem” is a generic name for artificial humanoids in Jewish lore and lit- erature. A golem is created to provide specific services to its creators – most often to be a house servant or to protect the Jewish community from enemies. It can be constructed from anything although, traditionally, they are formed from mud and animated through incantations. The method of its deactivation or destruction is also established at inception because a golem is often destroyed once it has completed its
- 53. 2 Cultural icons 35 work. Usually a paper bearing the Hebrew letters for the name of God is placed in its mouth at the time it is created. The golem is destroyed when that paper is removed. In some accounts, removing the paper simply deactivates the golem; to destroy one completely requires reversing the incantations that were used to create it. A typical golem will look and move exactly as a human but it is unable to experience emo- tions (although a few appear to fear destruction) and it cannot speak, although it can understand spoken language. It is not intelligent and, at the moment of its creation, a golem possesses all the knowledge that it will ever have. 1 History Theword“golem”(Hebrew)םלוגappearsonceintheOldTestamentoftheBible:“Thine eyes did see my undeveloped form…” (Psalm 139:16; Hebrew Publishing Company 1930: 982) but it is generally translated as “unformed” or “embryo” and does not refer to an artificial human (Sherwin 2013). The oldest account of such a creature in Jewish literature appears in the Talmud (Sherwin 1984: 2–4 and Valley 2005). Raba, a fourth- century Babylonian scholar, is said to have created a man whom he sent to the home of Rabbi Zera. Because the visitor refused to speak, Rabbi Zera identified it as an arti- ficial man, saying, “You have been created by one of my colleagues… Return to dust” which it did (cited in Leviant 2007: xiv and in Sherwin 1984: 3). Raba’s creation was not called a “golem.” That term first appears as a reference to artificial humans in the writings of Hebrew mystical scholars from the European Middle Ages and has retained that meaning (Sherwin 2013 and Sherwin 1984). Jewish mystics unearthed golems throughout Jewish history. Examples are a female golem created by Spanish poet Eleazar Solomon ibn Gabirol (ca.1022-ca. 1058) who served him as a housemaid (and possibly as a mistress) and a male golem of Rabbi Elijah Ba’al Shem of Chelm (1550–1583) which fell on the rabbi and acciden- tally killed him when it was deactivated. Mystics also reinterpreted Biblical stories. According to sixteenth-century mystic Isaiah Horowitz, for example, the “evil report” that Joseph brings to his father (Genesis 37:2) is that his brothers were having sex with female golems (Sherwin 1984:39). Other mystical scholars blame Enosh, the grand- son of Adam and Eve, for the start of idolatry (Genesis 4:26) because Satan was able to infiltrate the golem Enosh had created which led humans to worship it as a god (Valley 2005:46 and Sherwin 1984:19). Commentaries of several scholars maintain that God shaped the first human out of mud (Genesis 1:27–28); but until God breathed a soul into it (Genesis 2:7), it was a golem (Jewish Encyclopedia 1906, Sherwin 1984, Sherwin 2013 and Valley 2005:45–46). The most widely-known golem appears in The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague published in 1909 by Rabbi Yodl Rosenberg of Warsaw (Rosenberg 1909 [2007]). It contains stories about Yossele, a golem created by the 16th century Talmudic scholar Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague) to protect the Jewish community from attacks by anti-Semites – a real danger in
- 54. 36 Part I: Images Eastern Europe. Rosenberg claimed his book had been written by Rabbi Loew’s son-in-law, Rabbi Isaac Katz, but it is actually a work of fiction written by Rosen- berg, himself. Rabbi Loew (1520–1609) was a Talmudic scholar but none of his work addressed mysticism and, prior to the publication of Rosenberg’s book, there was no mention of a golem created by Rabbi Loew. Nevertheless, many readers believed it to be factual. According to Dr. Anna Foerst (2000), for example, there are con- temporary roboticists at MIT who maintain that, not only are they descended from Rabbi Loew, they possess the formula for animating a golem. Rosenberg’s tales of Rabbi Loew and the Golem of Prague have resurfaced in poetry (e.g., Borges 1964), motion pictures (e.g., Wegener and Galeen 1920), television (e.g., The Golem 2013), children’s books (e.g., Singer 1981), graphic novels (e.g., Sturm 2003), science fiction and fantasy (e.g., Pratchett 1996), games (e.g., Gygax and Kuntz 1975), a com- pendium of golem stories (Wiesel 1983), and internet software (e.g., Bayless 2008 and Jayisgames n.d.). According to Sherwin (2013), the image of the obedient golem also began to shift after the publication of Rosenberg’s book. Some run amok and must be destroyed. The dominant representation of golem characters in Internet games and download- able software is that of a speechless, mindless killer. In effect, the docile and obedient golem of Jewish lore has been transformed into the kind of killer described previously, in Section II.B. Starting in the early twentieth century, golem began to possess emotions. The golem in a poem by Leivick (1921) suffers from a profound angst. Others fall in love, including the main character in Bretan’s 1923 opera The Golem (as cited in Gagelmann 2001: 87–99); the cyborg golem Yod¹³ in Piercy’s (1991) novel He, She and It; and the golem couple that appears in the animated television series, The Simpsons (The Simp- sons: Treehouse of Horror XVII 2006). Both Piercy’s golem and the male golem on the Simpsons were built to kill but both of them detest violence and resist their original functions. Most recently, the main character of Wecker’s 2013 novel, The Golem and the Jinni, reflects on the meaning of existence and equally ponderous issues. The golem is sometimes used as a symbol or metaphor. The title character of Meyrink’s (1914) novel, Der Golem, for example, symbolizes the suffering and collec- tive spirit of Jews living in the Prague ghetto. In Gloria Minkowitz’ memoir, Growing up Golem (2013), the golem symbolizes relationships in which someone feels com- pletely powerless. Sherwin (2000: 79–80) and others see golems as metaphors for large corporations. In her 2013 poem, ‘The Corporation Golem,’ Rita Roth writes “A golem posing as a soul / intent upon one major goal. / It’s greed, bald greed that sets the pace.…” Gier (2012) writes in his blog, “So far we can say this much about golems and corporations: they are artificial entities that have been created by humans and 13 Yod ()י is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is the first letter of the four-letter Tetragramma- ton, (YHWY ה ו ה )י representing the name of God. In astrology, it is a triangular configuration of three planets, sometimes called the “finger of God” that produces unusual situations and personalities.
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- 56. not the less striking-looking personage, who was introduced as the district inspector of police, Mr. Merlin. ‘What do you think of society on the diggings?’ said Mr. Bright to Ernest; ‘hardly what you would have expected?’ ‘It is utterly wonderful,’ said Ernest. ‘I am perfectly amazed at the order and decorum which everywhere prevail, and even at the elegant and enjoyable party to-night―so many nice people you seem to have.’ ‘Yes,’ said Mr. Merlin, ‘nothing is more wonderful, as you say. There are so many extremely nice people here. So well worth knowing. People who have such noble, disinterested views, eh, Greffham?’ ‘I quite agree with you,’ answered that gentleman. ‘But it’s rather a bore we can’t have a little whist, isn’t it? A quiet rubber, or a game at billiards, would be much more sensible than all this capering with a lot of people that, in any other part of the world, you wouldn’t dream of speaking to.’ ‘Surely not,’ said Ernest; ‘some of our friends here are of unimpeachable ton, and for the rest they appear to be of very fair average standing. I am very much pleased with the whole affair.’ ‘Greffham is fastidious, and plays the Sybarite among his other characters,’ said the inspector slowly and distinctly. ‘He suffers much here when the rose leaves are unavoidably crumpled. So much depends upon a man’s antecedents.’ ‘I don’t know that I am more fastidious than others,’ he said, smiling, though the eye, that infallible referee in facial expression, did not agree with his amused expression. ‘You know that you, Master Merlin, rather agree with me than otherwise. But seriously, suppose we go over to the Occidental and have a game of billiards. Oceans of time; these misguided Turonians will dance for hours yet.’ The proposition met with general approval, and Mr. Neuchamp assented, not that he cared about billiards, at which he was only a
- 57. middling performer, but he felt the inexplicable influence of the strange scene and novel surroundings, and was more inclined than ordinarily desipere in loco. The four acquaintances crossed the street, which was filled, as far as they could see, with a surging crowd of men, chiefly attired in the ordinary dress of miners. Shops brilliantly lighted, and of imposing appearance as to their fronts, lined the long, narrow, and not altogether straight street. Mr. Neuchamp thought he had never seen such an assemblage of intelligent-looking men. Evidently the flower of the working classes, while from all the trades and professions a large proportion had been lured to Turonia by the golden possibilities of the great rush. What amazed Ernest chiefly was the astonishing order and polite behaviour of this vast concourse of people, containing presumably the ruffianism of all lands under the sun. He had seen mobs in the British towns and cities and in other parts of the world. In all these gatherings he had occasionally encountered rough usage, had heard much foul language, and had suffered risk or loss of personal belongings. But in this strange crowd no conduct other than of mutual respect and courtesy was observable. Rarely a word to which objection could be taken fell on the ear. The press parted and permitted the four gentlemen to walk through as independently as though they were the Dowager Patroness at a charitable institution. The brilliantly- lighted bars at the numerous hotels were certainly full, but there seemed to be more talking than consumption of liquor, and the spectacle of drunken men was altogether absent. A few police constables, unobtrusively placed, denoted that the Imperial Government, so calm, so impartial, yet so long of arm and sure of grasp, was represented. Otherwise it looked very much as if the great heterogeneous mass of humanity, now turning up the precious metal at Turonia at the rate of a couple of tons of gold per quarter, was permitted to manage itself. This was by no means the case, as Mr. Merlin could have explained. An unsparing crusade was organised against all manner of open vice and crime. No quarter was
- 58. given or respite permitted. Passing through the bar, among the occupants of which Ernest did not observe any one to carry a revolver, or to make as though the good-humoured landlord was likely to be, without notice, ‘one of the deadest men that ever lived,’ they reached a large, well-lighted room, where two handsome new billiard tables were in full swing. As they sat down on the cushioned benches which lined the room, a young fellow in a blue shirt and clay-stained trousers made a break of twenty-seven, and thereby won the game in a style which showed that he had not devoted all his life to mining industry. The marker promptly signalled to Mr. Greffham. He and Ernest then took possession of the vacated table. There is no doubt that at certain times an electrical tone pervades not only the physical but the moral atmosphere, affecting to depression or exaltation the mind of man, that subtle reflex of the most delicate external influence. Such a night was this. The music of the band was pealing from the opposite side of the street―the vast, surging, excited, but self-contained crowd presented the strangest contrasts of society, as akin to the rudest types of life in certain aspects, so near to Utopian models in advanced manners and intelligent consent. Even the scraps of conversation which found their way to Ernest’s ear were of a novel and fairy-legendary nature. ‘Made eight hundred pounds in ten days out of that bit of “surface,” Jem did; I sold a share in Green Gully, No. 5, for three drinks last week, and now they’ve struck gold and want a thousand for it. Commissioner settled that dispute to-day at Eaglehawk.’ ‘Who got number seven block?’ ‘Well, Red Bill, and his crowd; it’s on good gold too. ‘What did Big George say?’ ‘Oh, he was pretty wild, but he couldn’t do nothing, of course.’ ‘I’ll take three hundred and half out of the ground for a share in number two,’ and so on, and so on.
- 59. Mr. Neuchamp had come on to the long-disputed territory, ‘Tom Tidler’s ground,’ and the ‘demnition gold’ (if not silver) was sticking out of the soil everywhere. Ten-pound notes were handed across the bar for change as readily as half-crowns. Nuggets worth from £50 to £100 were passed about in the crowd for inspection with the most undoubting good faith and confidence in the collective honesty of mining mankind. Under these conditions, it was a night for bold and reckless conception, a night when the ordinary prudences and severities of conscience might be calmly placed behind the perceptions, and the ‘fore-soul’ be permitted to leap forth and disport in the glorious freedom of the instincts and original faculties. No sooner had Ernest handled his cue and struck the first ball than he perceived that he was in one of his rarely happy veins, when, sure of his play, he was also likely to fall in for an unusual allowance of ‘flukes.’ Therefore, when Greffham, who had kindly allowed him ten points, proposed to have a pound on the game, just for the fun of the thing, he promptly acceded. He won the first with ease, Mr. Greffham playing a steady but by no means brilliant game. And, much to his astonishment, the second also, with a couple of pounds which he had staked, with the good- natured intention of giving back Mr. Greffham his money. Ernest did not win the second game quite so easily, but his luck adhered to him, and a shower of flukes at the latter end landed him the winner. His antagonist bore his defeat with the finest breeding and perfect composure, deciding that it was quite a pleasure to meet with a gentleman in this howling desert, socially, who could play, and trusting that they might have another game or two before Ernest left the district. Then Mr. Bright and the inspector had a short but brilliant game, chiefly remarkable for the sparkling, if somewhat acidulated, repartee which it called forth. Then it was voted proper to return to the ballroom. Here matters had apparently reached the after-supper stage. The dancing was more determined, the floor smooth to the last degree of perfection. De Bracy, the Commissioner,
- 60. the Colonel, and the Branksome Hall party were still untired, unsatiated―the cheeks of the young ladies showed paler in the growing dawn-light, their eyes larger and more bright, and the hair of little Miss Maybell positively ‘would not keep up, and there was no use trying to make it.’ Ernest was just sufficiently fortunate to capture Miss Janie Campion for the galop, which proved to be the concluding one as far as he was concerned. For old Mr. Branksome, not being quite so fond of dancing and young ladies as his gallant brother, ordered the phaeton round, and caused his daughters to perceive that he wished to go home, without any kind of doubt or hesitation. So all wraps being secured, and the Colonel having taken a most tender leave of his last partner, the highly-conditioned horses went at their collars, and, after threading the unabated crowd, rattled along the smooth if winding track, by stumps, ditches, and yawning shafts, at a pace which, with luck and good driving, brought them in due time safe and sleepy to the avenue gate of Branksome Hall. On the following morning Ernest received a letter from Charley Banks, by which he learned that his party would not arrive in the neighbourhood of Turonia for at least another fortnight―their advance being unavoidably slow. He cheerfully concluded, therefore, to spend the intervening time in the golden city, where he would have an opportunity of noticing the preparations for mustering the herd, in which he and Mr. Levison were jointly interested, and of acquiring new facts in a tolerably new field of observation. He therefore took temporary leave of his very kind friends at the Hall, reserving to himself the right of occasional visits until he should depart, with his newly-acquired herd, for the ‘waste lands of the Crown,’ where the Great River flowed on, as in the long lonely æons of the past, through the vast plains and pine-bordered sandhills of Rainbar. Once domiciled in Turonia, Mr. Neuchamp found its society more various and entertaining than in any locality other than the
- 61. metropolis which he had visited since his arrival in Australia. It was the flush and prosperous stage of a great alluvial goldfield. All things wore the golden tint, all bore the image and superscription of the modern Cæsar and Imperator. Wonderfully unreal, and smacking of ‘the golden prime of the good Haroun Alraschid,’ was the careless magnificence with which large sums of money were acquired, spent, lost, and regained. Ernest visited the various banks, and saw bags and drawers in which the precious metal lay heaped in all forms, from the dull red heavy dust to the lump, ingots, and precious fragments, in which a thousand pounds’ worth was lifted in the hand with as much ease as a paperweight. He saw the bronzed, stalwart miners handing insignificant-looking bags across the cedar counters, and crushing handfuls of ten-pound notes into their pockets as a schoolboy receives change for a shilling spent in marbles. He retired to rest about midnight, and on awaking at dawn heard the ceaseless click of the billiard balls in the adjacent saloon, apparently fated to go on until the day again merged into midnight. He found the table d’hôte every day filled, not to say crowded, by well-dressed people whose occupation he could at first merely guess at, but whom he found to be in nearly every case connected with the great industry―as officials, mine-owners, brokers, speculators, professional men, and others unspecified, with perhaps a rare tourist, lured hither by astounding rumours, or a feeling of justifiable curiosity, to behold the unbounded treasures of mother earth, so long and jealously guarded. There was a never-failing store of amusement and occupation spread out before the calibre of Mr. Neuchamp, and so absorbed did he grow daily in the ever-widening field of observation that he felt almost regretful to find the time at his disposal rapidly diminishing. In no more friendly and hospitable region had he ever sojourned. He was voted an acquisition by the officials, and made free of all their small gatherings and merry-meetings. One day the Commissioner would drive him out to inspect a great sluicing claim,
- 62. where the water, brought through races by miles of fluming, spouted clear and strong over heaps of auriferous earth, as when it left its far-away mountain rill. On another occasion he was invited to witness the hearing and settlement of a great mining dispute, ‘on the ground,’ where a thousand excited men were gathered―the evidence heard upon oath, and the immutable decision of the Lord High Commissioner given, by which the one moiety was deprived of all right to a presumable fortune, and the other gifted with a clear title to the same. Much temporary excitement and even irritation was produced by each and every such verdict. But miners, as a rule, are a law-abiding body; and, the mining laws of the period being as those of the Medes and Persians, all effervescence, however apparently allied to physical force, rapidly subsides. In the intervals of such experiences and recreations, Mr. Neuchamp did not abstain from joining in diurnal billiard tournaments, and the nightly whist parties, in which trials of chance and skill he invariably found himself associated with Mr. Lionel Greffham and other pleasant persons, who, appearing to have no visible means of subsistence, were invariably well dressed, well appointed, and well provided with the needful cash. Mr. Greffham constituted himself his constant companion and mentor; the charm of his unremitting courtesy, joined to varied and racy experiences, with a never-failing flow of entertaining conversation, gradually broke down Ernest’s caution and reserve. They became, if not sworn friends, habitual acquaintances, and under his apparently disinterested guidance the time passed pleasantly enough. Yet Ernest began to perceive that, after the first few successes, his losings at cards and billiards commenced to add up to more serious totals than he had thought possible at the commencement of his sojourn at Turonia. More than once Ernest fancied that the keen eyes of Mr. Merlin wore a depreciatory, not to say contemptuous, expression when fixed upon Mr. Greffham. The Commissioner evidently disapproved of him in a general way, and Mr. Bright, who was open and bold of
- 63. speech, once took occasion to remark, àpropos of the elegant but inscrutable Lionel, that he considered him ‘to be a d―d scoundrel, who would stick at nothing in the way of villainy, if he had anything considerable to gain by it.’ But at this stage Ernest, at no time of a distrustful disposition, had formed an estimate of this fascinating freelance too favourable to be shaken by mere assertion unsupported by proof. One morning, for some reason, an unusually large amount of gold and notes was despatched from one of the banks, with the object of meeting a branch escort a day’s ride from Turonia. Two troopers were detached for this service. They carried the compact but precious burden before them in valises strapped to their saddles. A small group of habitués of the Occidental assembled to witness their departure, and Mr. Neuchamp bestowed much commendation upon the condition of the horses, the efficient appearance of arms and accoutrements, and the soldierly and neat appearance of the men. Curious to remark, Greffham was not among the admiring crowd, and Ernest alluded to the fact to the Inspector of Police, who was officially present. ‘What has become of Greffham?’ he inquired. ‘One would have sworn that we should have seen him here!’ Mr. Merlin replied that ‘Mr. Greffham was probably away upon business’; but a bystander volunteered the information that he had seen Mr. Greffham mounted, at daylight, upon his famous hackney Malakoff, apparently on the road to an adjacent diggings. ‘Where can he be going, Merlin?’ said Ernest. ‘He arranged to drive me over to the Hall to-day.’ Mr. Merlin replied, stiffly, that Greffham had apparently changed his mind, and that he, Merlin, had not the slightest acquaintance with Mr. Greffham’s business affairs.
- 64. Mr. Neuchamp felt quietly repelled by this answer, and the cold indifference with which it was given. He came to the conclusion that Merlin was unnecessarily formal, and by no means so pleasant an acquaintance as the absent one. He was not fated to recover from the effects of his matutinal disappointment. The Commissioner was up to his eyes in court business that day. Bright was unusually confined to his bank. Merlin disappeared on the trail of a cattle-stealer long and urgently ‘wanted,’ while every other member of the waif and stray corps, from the police magistrate to Horace Sherrington, seemed to have been snatched away by the Demon of Industry, or otherwise absorbed by abnormal influences. Long, dismal, and cheerless passed the hours of one of those broken, objectless days that are so peculiarly, unaccountably depressing. It was long―very long―since Ernest had spent so miserable a day. He regretted that he had not carried out his intention of visiting the Hall. He wondered when Charley Banks would arrive, and sincerely longed once more for the absorbing work of the muster and the march, telling himself that it would be long before he spent so idle a season again. The evening at length arrived, and with the gathering of the accustomed party at the dinner-table brighter thoughts possessed his mind. By the time that the evening game of billiards had fairly commenced, Mr. Neuchamp’s equable habitude of mind had reasserted itself. They had not been long occupied with this fascinating exercise, wonderfully suited to so many shades of character, when Greffham lounged in, calm and insouciant, as usual. At the first opening in the game he took his favourite cue and played his usually cool and occasionally brilliant game. If he had been in the saddle the long day through, no trace of more than ordinary exercise or excitement was visible in the soigné attire, which seemed a part of the man’s being, or on his calm, impassive features. His play differed not in the slightest degree from his ordinary form, which always showed improvement towards the close, with perfect unconsciousness as to whether he was apparently winning or losing the game. He made his
- 65. customary break, and, betting upon a five stroke at the finish, gave a shade of odds upon the success of his concluding ‘coup.’ He spoke of a longish ride as far as an outlying quartz reef, in which he had an interest, and mentioned having encountered the two gold-laden troopers at an inn which they would pass towards the end of their day’s journey. Half an hour later on Mr. Merlin dropped in, by no means so calm in his demeanour as Greffham, and full of complaints as to the abominable nature of the weather, the fleas, the dust, the danger of riding late among unprotected shafts, and many other disagreeables specially selected by fate for his deterioration and disgust on this appointed day. While in this unchristian state of mind, for which he was mildly taken to task by Greffham, he was called out by a waiter, who informed him that ‘a gentleman wished to see him.’ ‘Oh, certainly,’ quoth the unappeased official with sardonic politeness; ‘most happy, I’m sure. I very seldom see one.’ With this Parthian shaft at the entire community, which was accepted as a perfectly permissible and characteristic pleasantry, Mr. Merlin quitted the room to greet the aforesaid rare and precious personage. He did not return; and after a little unlimited loo, in which Mr. Greffham transferred the larger portion of Ernest’s ready money to his own pocket, the company separated for the night. It was moderately early on the morrow when Mr. Neuchamp presented himself in the main street of Turonia. He was at once instinctively aware that something strange had happened. The ordinary life and labour of the busy human hive seemed arrested. Men stood in groups at the sides, the corners, the centres of the streets, conversing in low tones with bated breath, as it seemed to Ernest. The very air was heavy and laden with horror―unexplained, mysterious―until above the hum and confused
- 66. murmurs came, ominous and unmistakable, the one darkest irrevocable word ‘murder!’ It was even so. Mr. Bright, walking briskly down the street, accosted him, and in the next breath asked if he had heard the news. ‘Very dreadful thing―very,’ said the sympathising banker, trying vainly to subdue his cheerful visage. ‘Never had anything so terrible happened at Turonia since it was a goldfield. Merlin, Greffham, and I are going to ride out to the spot to-morrow. Would you like to come?’ ‘With pleasure,’ said Ernest; ‘that is, I shall go as a matter of duty. But what is up?’ ‘Just this――’ said Bright. ‘But surely you must have heard it?’ ‘Not a word,’ replied Ernest. ‘Pray go on. I have suspected something wrong, but have not the faintest idea what it is.’ ‘Henderson and Carroll,’ said Bright solemnly, ‘two of the men in the force, the troopers that you saw start with the gold, were yesterday found dead―murdered, evidently―near the Running Creek. All the gold and bank notes have been taken, and the police have no more idea who the murderer is than you or I have. Have you, Merlin?’ he asked of that gentleman, who now joined them. ‘Are there any bushrangers or bad characters known to be in the neighbourhood?’ asked Mr. Neuchamp. ‘I have always thought it a perfect marvel that so little overt crime existed among this immense assemblage of men, with so many exciting causes. There must be very few criminals, or else they keep very quiet.’ ‘We know of scores of men of the very worst class and most desperate character,’ replied Mr. Merlin; ‘but, as you say, they have been kept very quiet. Still it never does to relax caution, as, if a sufficiently “good thing,” in their phraseology, turns up, they are always ready to run all risks for the spoil. You have pushed against
- 67. men who have committed more than one or even two murders. I saw you talking to one the other day by the Chinaman’s store in Stanley Street.’ ‘Good heaven!’ said Ernest, much moved, ‘you don’t say so? And was that quiet, sober-looking man that I was chatting with―I remember him quite well now―a known criminal?’ ‘One of the worst we have,’ rejoined the Inspector in a matter-of- fact tone. ‘A cold-blooded, treacherous ruffian. He dares not drink on account of what he might let out; but we know where he has been and all about him this time. He was not near the spot.’ At this moment a telegram was put into the Inspector’s hand, which he read carefully and showed to Ernest. ‘Of course this is strictly confidential,’ he said. The telegram ran as follows:― Notes traced, known to have been in the packet forwarded by escort. Arrest Jones. ‘This gives a clue, of course, but,’ said the official with diplomatic reserve, ‘we may or may not follow it up. Possibly we may be thrown out; but eventually I venture to think Mr. Jones will be run into in the open.’ ‘Arrest Jones,’ repeated Mr. Neuchamp. ‘And have you been able to secure him?’ ‘I don’t know whether the police have got hold of him yet,’ said Mr. Merlin cautiously; ‘but I daresay we shall be able to give an account of him by and by. If not, he will be the first man who has got clear off since this goldfield was discovered.’ ‘In the meantime you are going out to view the scene of the murder and the bodies of these poor fellows just as a matter of form and for your own satisfaction?’
- 68. ‘Precisely so,’ assented Mr. Merlin; ‘principally as a matter of form.’ ‘And Greffham is going with us just for company, like Bright, to make up the party, I suppose?’ continued Ernest. ‘It is very good- natured of him, for he told me yesterday that he had some important business to-day, and that he would not be about the town. But I have always found him most obliging.’ ‘So have I, most obliging, as you say. The fact is, he knows the spot exactly where these poor fellows must have been met.’ ‘But that Jones,’ said Ernest eagerly, ‘what a ruffian! what a cold- blooded villain he must have been! How I should like to fall across him. I could cheerfully go to see him hanged.’ ‘Perhaps you may have that gratification yet,’ replied Mr. Merlin with a grim smile. ‘More unlikely things have happened. Hallo! here comes Greffham.’ The gentleman referred to now sauntered up, accurately turned out in quite the best boots and breeches which Ernest had seen since he left England. His hunting scarf was adorned with the regulation Reynard brooch, and from throat to long-necked, heavy polished spur he was altogether point-device. He looked a shade paler, probably from the effect of his yesterday’s long ride, but his smile was as ready, his repartee as incisive, as ever, while his light-blue eye fell with its usual glance of cold scrutiny upon the advanced guard of the party. ‘What a fellow you are, Merlin,’ said he, ‘starting at this unearthly hour. Why didn’t you give a man a chance of a little sleep, who had, what you never get, a day’s work yesterday?’ ‘My dear Greffham,’ replied the Inspector with irresistible urbanity, ‘I was certain that you and Bright would enjoy the fresh morning air above all things. I know he’s a terribly early riser, and you can wake when it suits you; so I determined, under the circumstances, upon an early start.’
- 69. ‘All right,’ quoth Bright; ‘I don’t care how early you get away. It can’t be too early for me.’ ‘And besides, Greffham,’ said Merlin, ‘you know the short cut to Running Creek, which not every one can find. I propose to stay the night at the Ten-Mile Inn, and to make for the scene of the murder next day.’ ‘Come on, then,’ said Greffham harshly; ‘what the devil are we standing prating for? If you are in such a cursed hurry why don’t you get away instead of standing here burning daylight?’ ‘We were waiting for Markham,’ said Merlin good-humouredly, ‘but I daresay the old fellow will pull up. Come along, then. I’m awfully obliged to you for coming, Greffham; I am indeed!’ Mr. Neuchamp had before remarked the extreme readiness of most people upon the goldfield to accede to any wish expressed by Mr. Merlin, and he recurred to it for the edification of Mr. Greffham, citing it as an instance of the very remarkable courtesy of manner which, as he was never tired of noting, distinguished the inhabitants of the settlement of Turonia. Greffham listened in silence to Ernest’s philosophical utterances, and, lighting a cigar, rode steadily forward. Here Ernest was impressed with the fact that, as a party, they were unusually well armed, as also well mounted. The four troopers, one couple of whom rode in front as scouts, while another pair followed at easy distance, had each a Snider carbine. A ‘navy’ revolver hung at each man’s belt. Their horses were uncommonly well bred and in really good condition. Merlin, of course, never by any chance stirred without his revolver; and he was on his favourite Arab hackney, Omar Pacha, an indomitable gray, of proverbial pace and endurance. Mr. Bright had two revolvers, beside a pocket Derringer, which latter had a trick of going off unexpectedly, and had once ‘made it hot’ for a friend and brother banker. Greffham was apparently unarmed, but he never permitted any one to know more than he wished even in
- 70. the most trifling matters. He was an ‘ace-of-clubs’ man with the pistol, and, had duelling been fashionable at Turonia, he would no doubt have distinguished himself after much the same fashion as the hard-drinking ‘blazers’ of the Wild West a hundred years agone.
- 71. Before they had gone half a dozen miles they were overtaken by a squarely built man on a bay cob, who interchanged a hasty but hardly visible signal with Mr. Merlin, and fell into the rear. The newcomer was a clean-shaved, Saxon-looking person, not very unlike a snug tradesman. He made an ordinary remark or two to Greffham and then subsided into obscurity. He also was well armed, and bore himself in a quietly resolute manner that impressed Mr. Neuchamp much. The day was hot, the road sandy, and, as it appeared to Ernest, more tiresome than bush roads of similar nature were apt to be. The conversation, which had been general and well sustained at first, fell off gradually, until each man rode silently on, fanning the flies from his face, and apparently becoming more irritable, hot, and uncomfortable as the day wore on. The only exception to this result of the tedious wayfaring was Mr. Merlin. He apparently did not suffer in temper, spirits, or natural comfort from the exigencies of the journey. He kept up an even flow of conversation with Greffham and Bright, albeit the former chiefly answered in monosyllables, and the latter freely cursed the road, the day, the flies, and the unwarrantable and misplaced sympathy which had caused him to accompany the expedition. But the day drags on, whether the stormy north refuses the traveller the sight of the sun, or the languid south bestows too much of that indispensable potentate. The welcome coolness and dim shades of eve had commenced when the wayside inn was reached, the last roof shelter which the dead had known, where they had quaffed their last draught and possibly told their last jest. On the bank of a creek at some few miles’ distance they had determined to make their camp, preferring it for some reasons to the inn. And there they had found their last resting-place. Ernest remembered noticing the care and completeness which marked the men’s equipment, their muscular, well set-up figures,
- 72. their easy seats as they rode their high-constitutioned, well-bred horses up the street on the morning of their departure. And now they lay prone and motionless among the thick withering grass; above them waved the melancholy, sighing casuarina, from the branches of which croaked the raven―far-scenting herald of doom, sable watcher by the dead. As he thought of the manly, pleasant faces he could recall so easily, but of yesterday, as it seemed, the strongest feelings of wrath and hatred were stirred within him, and he muttered an imprecation of swift vengeance upon the head of the cold-blooded assassin Jones, if that indeed were the name of a wretch unfit to cumber earth. The sad surroundings, the gloomy tone of Mr. Neuchamp’s thoughts, did not lead him to decline the respectable meal to which he found himself bidden along with the gentlemen of the party. Markham and the troopers occupied another apartment, in which they made themselves fairly comfortable. The horses were stabled, and, save for the inevitable death-scene of the morrow, the evening would have passed not uncheerfully. As it was, however, Mr. Merlin organised whist, and even encouraged a little quasi-gambling by proposing higher stakes than usual. The chief result of which was that Mr. Neuchamp, having the experienced Lionel Greffham for a partner, won more money than he had lost in many an unsuccessful night in Turonia. In vain did Bright and Merlin ‘plunge’ by way of recouping their losses. The luck of Mr. Greffham was altogether too good; and Merlin, about midnight, gave in, saying, ‘You have the devil’s luck, as usual, Greffham. I wonder how long it will stick to you.’ ‘Who knows?’ answered he indifferently, ringing the bell and ordering refreshment on a liberal scale. ‘It has held on pretty well so far. It may turn, though, and then I think I could find a bullet for myself and a quiet couch.’ ‘Really now, my dear Greffham,’ said Merlin, ‘if I did not know you well, I should think you were threatening what no man of sense ever puts into practice. But I have seen luck stick to a man until the
- 73. actual and inexorable finale. Then he and all the world had to acknowledge that they had been mistaken―more mistaken―most mistaken―in their previous calculations and investments. Don’t you think we could manage another whisky before we turn in? I must have my smoke, anyhow.’ Ernest thought this, for him, unnecessary, and fell back upon soda-water; but Greffham, apparently, was disinclined for immediate retirement. He and Merlin sat up long, telling apparently never- ending, half-forgotten tales, and smoking furiously. As Mr. Neuchamp, restless and feverish, chose to get up at dawn and pace the verandah, he saw Markham and Merlin holding colloquy in low tones, amid which he involuntarily caught the sound, on Markham’s side, of the words ‘all right.’ Shortly after the sharply disciplined troopers were astir at stable duty, and at sunrise the whole party were on their way to the fatal creek. Bright and himself, Mr. Neuchamp thought, looked the freshest of the party, having had a few hours of sound sleep. Merlin’s spirits were high, as on the previous day. Greffham looked if anything more indifferent, more calm and careless about all earthly concerns, his fellow-creatures in particular, than usual. ‘It was by this track, round this very clump of pines, that you saw the men ride off, Greffham?’ said Merlin. ‘It is quite fortunate that you should be in a position to state your impression at a time which could not have been many hours before their deaths. How did they look? Do you think they had been drinking?’ ‘Can’t say,’ answered Greffham after a pause, as if trying to recall the exact circumstances. ‘Carroll was a reserved, sulky-looking beggar, I always thought; one of those men that you could not tell liquor upon as long as he could keep his legs. Now I think of it, they did look rather stupid.’
- 74. ‘You are quite correct about Carroll, old fellow,’ said Merlin airily; ‘he was reserved and taciturn, a ridiculously unsuitable habit of mind for a subordinate. Odd thing that nothing has been heard of the gold or notes.’ ‘I suppose whoever took them,’ said Greffham―‘(try one of these cigars, little Seguadil sent me a box)―whoever took them had sense enough to conceal them for a while. The gold will turn up eventually.’ ‘But not the notes, you think?’ persisted Merlin. ‘Not unless there is something uncommon about them―(this cigar won’t draw)―numbers taken and so on. If they are the ordinary well-thumbed paper-promises current at diggings, they will be hardly identifiable.’ ‘Very likely you are right. Deuced good cigar that. I wish the little beggar would send me some of that Amontillado of his; that and his Manzanares might really have come out of the King of Spain’s cellar, as he used to aver. But the road improves now, we may as well canter. Famous horse of yours, Greffham, nothing like him in Turonia.’ ‘Why, Merlin,’ said Bright, ‘what a heavenly temper we are in this morning! Biliary secretions unusually right, I should say!’ ‘Of course, Bright, of course; there’s no credit to a jolly, sanguine fellow like you for being in a good temper. Nature in your case has done so much that it would be the basest ingratitude if you did not second her efforts. Now spare fellows, like the elegant Lionel here and myself, with whom indigestion is more the rule than the exception, only require to feel free from torment to be in the seventh heaven. But here we are at the Running Creek. Look at the eagles already gathered.’
- 75. CHAPTER XXIII A boding gloom seemed to fall suddenly like a pall from the branches of the sighing, whispering, sad-voiced water-oaks, as they followed the winding track which led along the bank of the tiny streamlet to the small alluvial flat, upon which lay two―pah, what shall I say?―two figures covered with rugs, which may or may not have exhibited the human outline. ‘They lay as dead men only lie.’ A swarm of flies arose at the lifting of the coverings, and a terrible and intolerable odour diffused itself around. ‘Great God!’ cried Ernest, ‘are these repulsive, fast-decaying masses of corruption all that are left of the high-hearted, gallant fellows I saw ride out of Turonia so short a while ago? Poor human nature, upon ever so slight summons, and must we come to this! Accursed be the greed of the yellow gold which brought our brother men to so hideous an ending.’ As these reflections flowed from the sympathetic heart of Ernest Neuchamp with a natural force that could not be controlled, he turned in time to notice that Mr. Merlin had directed the coverings to be removed from the corpses, and had instituted, in spite of their revolting condition after forty-eight hours’ exposure to a burning sun, a thorough and searching examination. One man, Carroll, lay on his side with face half upturned and arm outstretched, in the hand of which was grasped a revolver with a barrel discharged. An expression of defiance was still legibly imprinted upon the features―a bullet wound through the centre of the forehead had without doubt been the cause of death. The strong man had fallen prone, as if struck by lightning, and for ever, ever more the wondrous infinitely complicated machine was arrested. The soul had passed into the region of endless life, death, sleep, sorrow, joy!
- 76. ‘This man has been shot from the front, Greffham, shouldn’t you say?’ pronounced the clear, incisive tones of Mr. Merlin. ‘He may or may not have been standing up to his assassin. If so, it was a species of duel, and the best shot and quickest had it. If you wouldn’t care about standing there, now, by that oak-tree, raise your arm, so; by Jove, you would be just in the position that the man must been in that dropped the poor sergeant.’ ‘Just the sort of thing that Greffham would have gone in for if he was hard up,’ said Mr. Bright, chuckling. He was reckless as to the flavour of his jests, far from particular if only they were ‘hot’ enough. ‘You are always thinking of that gold-buyer of yours that was shot, Bright,’ said Greffham, wincing uneasily, though, under the concentrated gaze of three remarkably steady pairs of eyes,―Merlin’s, Bright’s, and Markham’s. ‘It’s my belief that Halliday shot himself; he was something like you, in always carrying half a bushel of revolvers, and, like your battery, it went off accidentally sometimes.’ ‘There’s a boot mark in the sand underneath that oak-tree,’ said Markham, with great suavity; ‘it’s the very model of your track, Mr. Greffham, that you made there. Excuse me, sir.’ ‘I suppose other people wear boots as well as I,’ he said. ‘Bushmen and diggers are deuced rough, and all that, but they haven’t come to going barefoot yet.’ ‘Nor wearing French boots with very narrow heels,’ said Markham, as he measured the imprint of the said bottine with a small pocket rule. ‘However, boots don’t go for much, unless corroborated.’ With this sapient speech Mr. Markham closed his remarks and apparently lost interest in the scene. ‘Now this poor fellow,’ interpolated Mr. Merlin, lifting up the trooper’s face, and parting the thickly clustering brown curls, ‘has been shot from behind. Here’s the little hole through the back of his head, and the pistol must have been pretty close, as the powder has
- 77. burned one side of it considerably. He has simply fallen over on his face, and there was an end of him. Here you can see where the valise containing the gold and notes was unstrapped from Sergeant Carroll’s saddle. The saddles had been put back to back on the ground. One carbine is here still, and one is missing.’ ‘By Jove!’ said Greffham, ‘you know everything, Merlin. You’re like the man in the Arabian Nights who described the camel that had passed the day before,―lame, blind of an eye, having lost two front teeth, and loaded half with rice and half with dates, and yet never saw him at all. You’re a wonderful fellow! You’re so devilish sharp.’ ‘And you’re a more wonderful fellow; you’re so devilish cool,’ said Merlin. ‘I do know a thing or two, and, upon my soul, I have need―par exemple, old fellow―it was devilish good-natured of you to come out all the way with us, but it has just occurred to me that you seem to have seen these poor fellows so very lately, just before they were rubbed out, that, quite as a matter of form, I must trouble you to explain your proceedings on that day to the authorities. Lionel Greffham!’ continued he, in a voice which, raised and vibrating, was so utterly changed that Ernest Neuchamp did not know it as that of this smiling satirist with his society talk and ready rapier of repartee, ‘I arrest you on suspicion of murder and robbery.’ Perhaps the least astonished and agitated individual of the company was the accused himself. He swung round on one heel as Merlin laid a sinewy grasp upon his shoulder, and, drawing a small foreign-looking revolver from his breast, aimed fair at the heart of his quondam companion. At the same moment he was covered by the weapons of Markham, the troopers, and of Mr. Bright, who held straight for his former acquaintance with unmistakable aim and determination. ‘It’s no use, Mr. Greffham,’ said Markham, ‘I made your popgun safe at the inn last night. It would never have done to leave you the chance of giving us “Squirt Street.” It won’t pop if you pull the
- 78. trigger for a week. Say you could drop Mr. Merlin, why we can “twice” you over and over.’ Mr. Merlin’s clear gray eyes glittered with unwonted excitement. He also held a revolver in his right hand. ‘My dear fellow,’ he said, ‘all excitement is bad form. You must be aware that you are only arrested on suspicion. Nothing may turn up to implicate you any more than Bright there, but in all these cases a man in my position has a duty to perform, and you know well I should do mine if you were my own brother, or the best friend I had in the world.’ By this time Greffham had recovered his usual composure. ‘I don’t doubt that for one moment, Merlin,’ he said, with sardonic emphasis. ‘I think you have such a talent in that line that you would rather enjoy “running in” your own father. However, business is business. You’ve thrown down your card, and as you seem to hold all the trumps at present, you must have the odd trick.’ ‘Precisely, precisely,’ assented Mr. Merlin; ‘I always thought you a devilish sensible fellow. So now we must make a start for home. I am afraid that I must―just as a matter of form, you know―Markham.’ That wary official moved forward, and noticing, without seeing, as it were, that his superior officer still held his revolver ready for immediate use, produced a pair of handcuffs, and with the ease and quickness of long experience slipped them over the wrists of him who was doomed never to sleep unfettered more. The party, now become a procession, moved quietly homeward to Turonia. They halted at the inn, the landlord of which was considerably surprised at seeing the great Mr. Greffham’s hands closed before him, while a trooper led his horse by a rein. Up to this period he had not the smallest suspicion that the lavish swell, who, like all men who affected wholesale piracy, was ‘quite the gentleman’ in the matter of free spending of money, could be possibly mixed up with a cold-blooded murder and an extensive robbery. But now his
- 79. intellect being permitted freedom, he remembered that Mr. Greffham had called at his inn at no long time after the troopers, one of whom he knew well, and furthermore that he remembered hearing a shot at a great distance. It might have been a revolver. He could not say. It was firearms of some sort. Might have been two shots. Saw nothing. Ernest observed that Markham noted down in a large pocket-book the exact minute and hour of the faint report of firearms to which the innkeeper testified, the exact time at which the troopers were last seen alive by him, and the time of the arrival of Greffham; and those minor matters being definitely settled, Mr. Merlin conducting the interrogation in a very different voice from his society one, the subdued, if not noticeably saddened procession took the road for Turonia. It was late when they reached that somewhat peculiar settlement, but the streets were profusely lighted, busy, and more thronged than at noonday. When the modern inland Australian substitute for ‘a plump of spears beneath a pennon gay’ rode straight for the camp, the foremost trooper leading the horse of a manacled prisoner, whom many keen eyes at once recognised as Lionel Greffham, a low but savage murmur came from the dense and excited crowd. Whatever interest or enthusiasm might have been evoked in Mr. Neuchamp’s breast by the wonders and novelties of the great goldfield and its heterogeneous, picturesque population, had now collapsed. A feeling of doubt and horror succeeded. A tinge of blood, a brooding death-shadow, was over the splendour and the glamour of the enormous treasure-pile which now in ceaseless, countless profusion seemed daily won from the reluctant earth. He heard to his great satisfaction that Mr. Banks and his party had arrived; that Levison’s manager, a man of boundless experience in stock, more particularly cattle, was already hard at work at the muster, and that every day an increasing number of the female cattle destined for Rainbar was drafted and delivered to the ‘tailing mob’ in Mr. Banks’s charge.
- 80. Satisfying himself by inspection that the very ordinary routine work of mustering a herd, when the mere numbers and sex were alone concerned, and where no battles had to be fought over individuals of disputed age, size, or quality, could be very safely delegated to subordinates, Ernest rode over to Branksome Hall for a farewell visit. There he found himself an object of interest and friendly welcome, somewhat heightened by his late adventurous journey in company with Mr. Merlin. The young ladies were deeply shocked at the terrible finale to their acquaintance, slight as it had ever been, with the unhappy man who was now a prisoner and presumably a felon, where once he had shone a star of the first magnitude. Mr. Branksome was sufficiently a man of the world to have always distrusted the handsome and unscrupulous adventurer. Beyond a formal call he had never been encouraged to see much of the interior of the Hall. ‘Terrible affair this, Neuchamp,’ said the host, as the whole party sat in the drawing-room before that evening summons had sounded which few are sufficiently philosophical or sympathetic to decline. ‘I never had a high opinion of Greffham―always distrusted the man, but as to his murdering a couple of poor devils of troopers for the sake of a couple of thousand ounces of gold, why, I should as soon have expected him to have dropped strychnine into one’s soup-plate at the Occidental at lunch.’ ‘Never fancied him,’ said the Colonel; ‘deuced well-dressed, well- set-up fellow; been in a cavalry regiment. But he had a cold- blooded, hard way of looking at one―bad eye too, cruel, devilish cruel―that man has taken life before, I swear―know the expression well, killing is not the fashion much in this country, too young yet―life too valuable―you don’t know the signs of it.’ ‘I can hardly hear to speak of it,’ said the eldest Miss Branksome. ‘To think that any one of education and gentleman-like habit, for he was a gentleman as far as manner, appearance, every outward
- 81. observance can make one, should have descended so low, gone down into the very pit of murder and theft, for what? What could have driven him to the edge of such a precipice? Surely there must be demons and fiends who have power over men’s souls.’ ‘Extravagance, gambling, the habit of spending money without working for it,’ said her father. ‘Debt in one shape or other is one of the demons allotted to torment mortality in this period of the world’s history. The demoniac of the age is the man who has bills or liabilities coming due without the means to meet them. He may appear ordinarily clothed and in his right mind, but, after some torturing hour, it may be related of him, as of this unhappy wretch, the evil “spirit tare him,” and he “wallowed foaming.’” ‘It seems a wonderful thing that he didn’t apply to some of his friends, doesn’t it?’ queried Mr. Neuchamp. ‘He seemed to have plenty of them. Even if he had not been completely put right they could surely have given him enough to secure breathing time; but murder, robbery, pah! it is purely incredible to me, predicated of a man that we have all met more or less in habits of intimacy.’ ‘Nothing so wonderful about that,’ said the Colonel; ‘deuced cool, clever adventurer, you know, without one morsel of feeling in favour of what some people call principle, humanity, or honesty. Seen the style before. Big loot of any kind is the thing to bring out such a man in real form. Known fellows in Indian service too, by gad, who would kill a prisoner in cold blood or burn half a village for the sake of a few diamonds or a hoard of gold mohurs.’ ‘It’s positively awful, dreadful, miserable,’ said the youngest Miss Branksome. ‘I shall dream of nothing else for a month, I know. Papa, isn’t that the dinner bell? Now there’s a forfeit if anybody says a word about gold or murder or anything belonging to Turonia again this evening. We shall be quite demoralised with all this Fouché business. There’s Mr. Bright begins to look as if he was going to act upon “information received” every time I see him.’
- 82. The inmates of that pleasant home finished the evening without overt allusion to the awful tragedy which had overshadowed their neighbourhood, and brought dishonour and death, rare visitors ere this, even to the reckless, toiling, far-gathered goldfields community. But in every heart, from time to time, in the pause of the conversation, in the silence of the night hour, arose the dimly- outlined picture of the lonely flat where the sighing oaks whispered and faintly wailed over two motionless figures, dread and silent, among the thick, dry, waving grass. On the reverse shadow-tracery a well-known figure, with an evil light in the cold blue eyes, a hellish sneer on the short, curved lip, was pacing the gloomy flags of a felon’s cell! Though Mr. Neuchamp on the morrow parted with great regret from his kind friends of Branksome Hall, he could not conceal from himself that Turonia, under the circumstances, would be the last place in which he should choose to linger. A shadow of gloom, a savour of blood, was with the whole place and surroundings in his eyes, and though the streets still trembled as before under the tread of an army of Britain’s best workers, and though at night there was store of pleasant society and excitement, all interest in the gold city had marvellously abated. Mr. Neuchamp was impatient until his moving contingent should be ready for the road, and to that end betook himself with grateful energy to the distraction of mustering the herd. With the efficient aid of Mr. Cottonbush, the much-experienced overseer deputed by Mr. Levison to carry out this particular duty, the whole herd was mustered and drafted with an economy of time and completeness of result very astonishing to Ernest. His part was confined to giving Mr. Cottonbush a receipt for nineteen hundred and seventy head of female cattle of all sorts, sizes, and ages, and having divided the said cows and heifers into two droves, an immediate departure was made for Rainbar. Mr. Banks was permitted to examine and explore the wonders of Turonia for the space of one day only; and after bidding farewell to his
- 83. friends at the camp and at Branksome Hall, Mr. Neuchamp rejoined his party, manfully performing his share of road work until, after many a weary week’s travelling and monotonous daily drudgery, they struck the river within a day’s ride of Rainbar. When Mr. Neuchamp once more alighted at the door of his cottage he felt the pleasurable glow which is rarely absent from the mind of any healthily constituted man returning after absence to his home. ‘Home, sweet home!’ hummed Mr. Neuchamp. ‘I don’t know whether the time-honoured words strictly apply to Rainbar, but I’m glad to see the old place again. The grass looks none too fresh, though, as if they had had little or no rain. It would have been inspiriting to have seen a little green after all the terrible dry weather we have had. I suppose these two thousand new cattle will be able to keep alive. As for paying for them, if I had not Levison’s advice and guarantee to depend upon, I should utterly despair of it.’ He had finished his evening meal when Mr. Jack Windsor was announced, that gentleman having been all day ‘out back,’ and having but just returned. He was unaffectedly glad to see Ernest, and gave a favourable account of the stock and station matters generally. ‘I don’t say as we’ve had much of a break-up of the dry time,’ he said, ‘but the rains come very stiddy and soaking every now and then. Besides, there’s been one or two fine thunderstorms out back, where I’ve been to-day. The feed’s a deal better than any I see in here. We’re a-getting on towards the end of the autumn now, and we might have a regular wet season, that will just crown us. I suppose the store cattle is all right.’ ‘In very fair strength and spirits, Jack. Mr. Banks thought that they would do splendidly here before spring, if there was any rain at all.’ ‘If it wasn’t for these confounded cockies,’ said Mr. Windsor, ‘that big flat would be a first-rate place to break ’em into, while they’ll have to be at the water every day. But it’s no use thinking of it. I’ve
- 84. had a deal of bother with ’em as it is; them boys are always cutting about the run on horseback, looking for a calf, or a colt, or something. I’d give a tenner out of my own pocket they was all out of that and back at Bowning or some other stringy-bark hole as is fit for ’em.’ Three days had elapsed since this conversation, when the two large droves of patient, slow-moving cattle arrived at Rainbar. Mr. Windsor was much impressed by their general appearance, and asserted confidently that such a lot of cows and heifers had never before been seen on the river. ‘They’re regular first-class bred ’uns, that’s what they are,’ he asserted; ‘that’s the best of going in with a man like Levison. He’s always got the sugar, consequence he always gets the worth of his money, and doesn’t get put off with half-and-half goods. He knows a thing or two, does Levison. Anyhow he’s a stunning mate to go shares with.’ After a short time spent in making necessary arrangements for the new arrivals, Mr. Neuchamp commenced to review his position. Much seriousness of visage resulted from the financial examination. In the first place no cattle had been sold in his absence. Nor were there now any in sufficiently high condition to be turned into cash with the same facility as of old. A considerable hole had been made in the overdraft which Messrs. Oldstile and Crampton had grudgingly permitted him. He had signed bills at twelve months’ date for the late purchase of cattle; and accommodating as Mr. Levison might be, the acceptances would have to be met or provided for at maturity. Prospectively profitable as the transaction was, Mr. Neuchamp commenced to make acquaintances with the ominous suggestion, ‘Bankruptcy,’ and to wonder whether he should really, in spite of all his plans, prudence, and philanthropy, be compelled, even as others were whom he had contemptuously pitied in old times, to surrender unconditionally.
- 85. Of this dread and final catastrophe Mr. Neuchamp had a lively horror which no sophistry could abate. He was not one to fall back upon the many excuses and palliations which the fluctuating markets, the uncertain season, afforded. No, no; the stoppage of payment meant Ruin and Disgrace. It would sound the knell of hope, would proclaim dishonour inevitable, irrevocable, as well as the total failure of all the plans and projects which his heart held dearest. His perusal of the newspapers, which had accumulated to a goodly pile in his absence, brought no hint of indulgence. The markets were low; the season had not yet improved so as to place the stock out of danger. If all debts incurred were to be met, there was little expectation of being able to liquidate them by the aid of the stock then depasturing upon Rainbar. More than this, he found among his correspondence an epistle from Messrs. Oldstile and Crampton, written in the very old- fashioned manner affected by that sound but non-progressive firm. It informed their very worthy and most esteemed constituent, Mr. E. Neuchamp, that the five hundred pounds last paid to his credit was exhausted, and that unless, of course, his account was supported by remittance, they could under no circumstances continue to honour his orders. A letter from Paul Frankston, though kind and hearty in tone, was not reassuring. He said that the times were exceedingly bad,―so bad that even he, Paul, had had work to meet his engagements, and had at no time for many years past been so sorely pressed. He noticed that every day fresh station properties were being brought into the market, and hoped that an utter crash and collapse of stock and stations was not about to take place, as in 1842-43. The only reason for believing that a favourable change would take place in the stock-market was that the yield of gold appeared to be increasing, and that though temporary inconvenience had taken place, he, Paul, fully believed that in the course of a year or two there would be a very different state of matters. He therefore advised Ernest to be hopeful, and, while keeping down expenses to
- 86. the narrowest limit, to hold on to his station with his eyelids, so to speak. Those who had done so at any former period of the country’s history were now wealthy men. He believed yet that Ernest, if he steadily adhered to his proper work and―pardon him―abstained from speculative experiments, would eventually do well. He hoped that he had got his newly-purchased store cattle safely on the run. He had the greatest confidence in Levison’s unerring judgment in such matters. He might be unduly prejudiced in his favour, but he had never known him to be wrong. If everything went to the bad, no doubt this purchase would make matters no worse. If otherwise, they were the nucleus of a future, and not a small one either. His last advice was to keep the ordinary station work in the best possible trim, and not to spend one shilling in other than absolute necessities. Antonia was very well, but did nothing but read all day. He had suggested her going in for a degree at the University, but she had not cared for the suggestion. When rain came perhaps Ernest might manage another run down the country. Mr. Neuchamp steadily devoted himself to a full consideration of the matters placed before him in this letter―considerate and delicate in feeling, as indeed had been every word and line of advice received by him from Paul Frankston from the very beginning of their acquaintance. No one could have fancied that the whole of the obligation had been upon his, Ernest’s, side, from the day when he first exploded Hartley Selmore’s politico-economical arrangement for subsidising holders of station properties with the capital of ingenuous newly-arrived colonists. For how much generous hospitality, shrewd counsel, often implied rather than proffered, substantial assistance and unswerving friendship, was he not his debtor? And Antonia? The more he saw of girls generally,―and he did not rate those Australian young ladies, who had equal advantages of training, society, and culture, at a jot below their English contemporaries,―the more deep became his conviction of her unusual range of thought, depth of feeling, and purity of mind. As the dry, cool wind of the Australian autumn wailed and sighed over the wide gray plains, and around the useful but unromantic
- 87. edifices which went to make up the homestead at Rainbar, Ernest began to feel a somewhat intensified, intolerable sensation of intellectual loneliness. For the hundredth, five hundredth, time he wished that it would rain. Why did it not rain? Was the land accursed, like Egypt in the olden Pharaoh days? Rain would do so much. Put an end to his anxieties about the stock. Improve the condition and lessen the expense of the new cattle. Perhaps, nay, certainly, send up the price of stock generally. Liberalise the ideas of Messrs. Oldstile and Crampton. Render a trip to town possible; and oh, the sight once more of the verandah at Morahmee! the savour of the fresh brine-laden air! the sight of the foam-fringed billows of the unbounded sea! the―― But the further contemplation of impossible delights, rendered such by his now comparatively lengthened inland exile, was sternly repressed by the philosophic mind of Mr. Neuchamp. And rain, in England at least, had always seemed such a little thing―to be had for nothing; to be guarded against by the timid, complained about by the superficial, anathematised by the reckless, constant in and out of season―a nuisance, a drug, a daily dread. Why then, in the name of all the mighty, merciful powers, did it not rain? It was clearly no use fretting about the absence of the gladdening, fertilising phenomenon in a dry and thirsty land, or philosophising about the relation of monsoons to icebergs, any unusual protraction or prominence in which natural facts and forces of the calm unswerving giantess, Nature, might alter climates and prices, from Lake Alexandrina to the Snowy River, from Carpentaria to the county of Cumberland. The matter on hand was the plain and prosaic adjustment of his ‘duty a dead sure thing,’ and admitting of but little variation from the point. Therefore for the present, and as day after day arose bright and cool, with breezy morn and pure fresh bracing atmosphere, unhappily suggestive of continuous dry weather, Mr. Neuchamp, discarding theories, reveries, and projects, sternly addressed himself to work. From earliest dawn to a late hour the whole of the little community was astir. It had been with a feeling of deep satisfaction that Ernest had watched, for the first time, the great droves of ‘new
- 88. cattle’ spread, unchecked, over the Rainbar plain, and take their first meal of the scanty but highly nutritive salsolaceous herbage. Bred in a ‘sour grass’ country, far inferior for fattening purposes, though having merits of its own, the docile, highly-bred herd might be expected, under ordinary conditions, to grow and develop in the most unprecedented manner. There is a peculiar pleasure, felt by all station proprietors, in the examination of the droves or flocks of store stock placed for the first time upon their new pastures. Generally purchased at a comparatively low price, and passing from inferior to superior fattening country, if the season be favourable a cheering alteration takes place. It is pleasant for the sheep-owner to perceive his ‘large-framed healthy wethers’ (as per advertisement) laying on condition day by day, passing through all the stages of comparative obesity which enables him to ‘top the market’ with them as fat sheep, having previously denuded them of a fleece which, perhaps, fully pays the cost of the original purchase. But the gratification known to the purchaser of ‘store’ or ‘lean’ cattle, either for fattening or for increase, is of a higher and more intense, because of a more complex, nature, as becomes the more individualised character of the stock. Day by day, if but the pasture be sufficient, the range wide, the weather favourable, the season propitious, the stockmen practised and efficient―if, I repeat, all these conditions be fulfilled―then indeed does the happy pastoralist taste all the joys of his successful and pleasant position. Day by day, as he rides forth in the fresh morn, the warm kind eve, he notes the stranger kine more habitually wander out to the springing pasture and back to the creek, marsh, river, which is their water privilege. He sees the steers grow glossy of hide, thicker, lengthier, ripen into marketable bullocks. He sees the tiny she yearlings grow into sonsy heifers; the angular cows into imposing, deep-brisketed, flat-backed matrons, ever and anon with younglets, ‘to the manor born,’ and likely in time to pay double the original cost of the parent, with a high percentage for personal profit. Lastly, the first draft of bullocks picked from these, if a mixed
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