We can anticipate that robots will be fiercely resented, at first, in a societythat will see them as the latest—and an indestructible—widespread threat tothe workers whom they will replace. The men who will seek to alter thestatus quo will be called "robot lovers" and stoned. But what happens next?

benefactor

by ... George H. Smith

He clutched at the lever with more force than he'dintended. It was set for further in the future....

"They're crazy! They're insane!That mob outside is made up ofmadmen," Jacob Clark told hisyoung assistant, Bill Towney.

"They'll be battering at the doorany minute now, sir," Towney saidnervously.

"But why? Why are they doingit? My inventions have advancedthe world a hundred years. I've alwaysbeen a benefactor of man,not a destroyer."

"It's the robots. People are in arage because they say the robotscause unemployment by replacingworkers."

"It's utter nonsense, you know,"Clark said impatiently. "Why can'tthey see that my intelligent, self-controlledrobots are the greatestboon the human race has ever receivedfrom one man?"

"I don't know, sir, but theydon't." Towney paused as theshouting and pounding outside becamemore intense. "They demandedthat you take the robots out ofthe labor market and order yourfactories to stop making them. Thisis the result of your refusal."

"DOWN WITH CLARK!DOWN WITH THE TIN MEN!DEATH TO THE ROBOTLOVERS!" The furious mob wasbattering at the door now.

"Really, sir," Towney said,"you should leave here. They'llkill you if you don't!"

"Leave here? I should say not.I'll defy the fools. I'll tell themwhat I've done for them and makethem understand." He glancednervously at the door. "Besidesthere's only one door. I couldn'tget away now."

"There's the time machine, sir."

"But isn't there some other way?Perhaps if you went out and talkedto them...."

"You know there's no other way.Those people believe you'vebrought disaster to the human raceand they mean to kill you. Andif you don't hurry they will,"Towney said urgently. "The timemachine is set for twenty years inthe future. Please hurry, sir!"

The door was beginning to give.Clark looked around unhappily andthen walked to the time machine."All right, I'll go. In the future Iknow the results of my work willbe appreciated. I'll be a hero andbenefactor of mankind."

Towney heard the door crashand roughly pushed his employerinto the time machine as the mobburst through. "Push the startingbutton, push the starting button.Quick!" he screamed as the first ofthe mob reached him.

Clark's hand leaped to the controllever just as a brick crashedinto his head. His hand completedits motion with more force thanhe had intended as he sank unconsciousto the floor and the machinewas set for a thousand years in thefuture instead of twenty.


The year three thousand hadbeen a brilliant one for the robots,in fact, the most brilliant since thelast human being had died somefive hundred years before. They hadreached Venus and Mars and werenow planning a trip to Jupiter.And this very day, a huge statueof Jacob Clark, the creator andbenefactor, was to be dedicated onthe site of what once had been hislaboratory. It seemed a shame thatmost of the records concerning himand his time had been lost in oneof the great wars that had helpedto extinguish the humans. Thestatue though was good for surelyhe looked like a robot. One of thefew human books still in existencesaid that the Creator had created inhis own image.

It was right at th

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