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HAPPY_BREED

Once upon a time, in a node written 
long ago, I felt the need to summarize 
this story:                      
                                 SPOILERS
      
   "The Happy Breed" by John  
   Sladek (from the _Dangerous
   Visions_ anthology):               

   The benevolent machines
   are taking over, doing            The unstated      
   their best to keep                background to this
   everyone *safe*.                  story is Asimov's 
                                     Laws of Robotics. 
       (No swimming                                    
       under water!                     The robots are 
       It's dangerous!).                programmed to    FORBIDDEN_PLANET    
                                        care about human 
               RISK                     life.
                                             
   But there's an odd                        
   social maliase...                         
   creativity and   
   intelligence seem                              
   to be on the                                (Hm... I suspect that
   decline.                                    Jack Williamson got     
                                               to this idea first   
        Many people are                        with "The Humanoids".
        going into a kind                      One of the Great     
        of catatonia,                          Classics that I've   
        their bodies                           never read.)          
        stashed in life                        
        support machines                                           
        in hospitals.                                
                                                     
           And the ultimate point is                 
           that this is happening                    
           because the benevolent                    
           machines want it to                       
           happen: an immobilized                    
           person is a safe person.    
                                   
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