FICTION // 'SELLING POINT' AND OUR PAST FUTURE FICTIONS
This story was first published in "Imagination: Stories of Science and Fantasy," December 1955.
By Norman Arkawy
EXCERPT // Selling Point
“And let me point out,” Ira pursued, eager to clinch the sale, “that the Model I is so life-like that, in normal operation, it is almost completely silent. Only a faint throbbing—like that of a human heart—is noticeable.”
The woman cocked her head to a side. “I don’t hear anything,” she said.
Ira smiled triumphantly. “Of course, you don’t! Come here,” he said. “Put your ear to my chest and you’ll just be able to make it out.”
She rested her head on his chest and listened. The delicate fragrance of her perfume mingled with that sweet human scent that not even the Model I robots could imitate. Ira bent his head and brushed his sensitized cheek against her hair. He felt emotions that no robot should feel.
He silently cursed his makers and the wonderfully human brain they had given him. Their theory was that a salesman, to be effective, should think exactly like a human being. To better satisfy the customers, he should appreciate every human drive and desire. But it was wrong to feel like a man, to desire like a man, to hurt like a man and be unable to ease the pain because he was not a man! For once, U.S. Robot had gone too far!
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