From Peter Wright
Derek Scherer’s interview on making robots loveable reminded me irresistibly of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (SCC) in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (14 June, p 29).
Specifically, their attempt to give robots “Genuine People Personalities”, which resulted in Marvin the paranoid android.
I can only concur with protagonist Arthur Dent that it sounds ghastly, and remind Scherer that SCC’s complaints division eventually took up the major land masses of three medium-sized planets.
Polegate, East Sussex, UK
