Older novels often leave the impression that while many heterosexual men might have had lust in their hearts, they didn’t actually like women much. Some seemed to outright hate women, or at least wives. Based on these portrayals, it seems that for many men, marriage was simultaneously something to be sought out and something to be avoided at all costs.
Writers noticed this, thus a wealth of stories featuring high-tech solutions for happier marriages. Better to embrace radical technological innovations rather than stooping to, I don’t know, actually talking to spouses or considering that they might be people… Or might such scientific approaches simply blow up in the innovators’ faces? Here are five (mostly critical) works about robot partners and the pitfalls inherent in such approaches.
“Helen O’Loy” by Lester del Rey (1938)
Eager to determine the limits of artificial intelligence, bachelor chums Dave and Phil upgrade a domestic robot’s memory circuits. Result: a robot indistinguishable from an attractive, affectionate woman. Dave is smitten with the supposed Helen O’Loy. Conveniently, Helen is just as smitten with Dave.
What follows is a heartwarming tale of domestic bliss between a man and his household cleaning robot, with just two catches: Helen does not age but mortal Dave most certainly does. And what of poor Phil, who’s just as smitten with Helen as Dave is?
Some readers may wonder why cleaning robots are provided with a chassis that gives them the appearance of a real human woman. They might wonder just how anatomically correct that chassis is. I am simply grateful that the 1938 publication date prevented del Rey from answering those questions.
“Marionettes, Inc.” by Ray Bradbury (1949)
Marionettes, Inc. offers escape from burdensome marriage for people like Braling and Smith. In exchange for a small fortune, Marionettes provides almost perfect android duplicates. While the androids languish in domesticity, the human originals are free to pursue more rewarding activities. Everyone wins!
Smith discovers that husbands aren’t the only people trapped in unendurable marriages. As for Braling? There’s such a thing as a too-perfect replica; his is determined to be a better husband than Braling could ever be.1
People who considered themselves to be decent, upstanding middle-class citizens rarely got divorces when this was written, thus the allure of expensive replicas. Bradbury has an unsympathetic perspective on the two unhappy husbands, one of whom sees his wife as an impediment to his dreams and the other of whom complains because his wife is too affectionate.
“The Perfect Woman” by Robert Sheckley (1953)
Morcheck is a very modern man. Not for him Primitive Women, with their neuroses and flaws. Nothing will do for Morcheck but the very best Modern Woman. Modern Woman Myra dotes on Morcheck. Indeed, she could not do otherwise. Life for Morcheck is perfect domestic bliss… or, almost perfect.
Modern Woman is inferior to Primitive Woman in one way. Modern Woman wears out. When his beloved Myra begins to slow down, there’s nothing for it but to take her back to the factory for a shiny new replacement… no matter how much Myra might beg him to spare her.
This story was almost immediately anthologized and remained in print (on and off) until the present day. I wonder how many of the readers noticed that Sheckley isn’t on Morcheck’s side in this story? That is the problem with cautionary tales: people sometimes mistake them for blueprints.
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (1972)
Joanna Eberhart, her husband, and their children move to Stepford, Connecticut. It does not take Joanna long to notice something disturbing about Stepford housewives. Wives long resident in Stepford all seem to be unusually devoted to their husbands, almost to the point of parody. Newcomers may start off independent and liberated but soon they too become entirely focused on satisfying their husbands.
Is this simply small-town conformity? Is there something in the water? Or are the men of Stepford completely evil bastards who would cheerfully murder and replace their wives with android replicas to ensure their patriarchal way of life prevails? Unfortunately for Joanna, she will soon unearth the answers to those questions.
None of the husbands seem to love their wives enough to try to save them. This may be because Stepford vets men before recruiting them. However, one scene suggests that sons are aware of the scheme and none of them try to save their mothers. It may be that the overwhelming majority of males in Levin’s world are terrible, terrible people and vetting isn’t necessary at all.
“Till Death Us Do Part” by James P. Hogan (1981)
Unhappily married Harry Stone rejects divorce because of its price tag. Rather than have his wife Lisa walk away with half of their shared wealth, Stone endures marriage. Technology offers some escape: transferring his mind to a remote-activated Biovehicle half a planet away, Stone can conduct affairs without Lisa being the wiser.
When Stone falls for Sandra, these illicit affairs lose their allure. Stone is determined to marry Sandra. Divorce being off the table, he decides the only solution is murder. With Sandra’s assistance, Stone can poison Lisa, avoid a divorce settlement, and collect life insurance as well. The plan is perfect. In fact, the plan is more perfect than Stone could know.
***
I know it may (in this age of AI-powered plagiarism engines) seem odd and peculiar to refuse to improve our lives with the blind application of cutting-edge technology. Nevertheless, that’s what the five authors above appear to counsel.2 Even in the del Rey tale, the most positive of the five, poor Phil is left pining for a robot he can never have.3 Which is probably for the best.
In the words of fanfiction author Musty181, four-time Hugo finalist, prolific book reviewer, and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll “looks like a default mii with glasses.” His work has appeared in Interzone, Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis) and the 2021, 2022, and 2023 Aurora Award finalist Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by web person Adrienne L. Travis). His Patreon can be found here.
[1]“Wait!” ask frequent readers, “Isn’t that the same plot as Alan E. Nourse’s “Prime Difference,” which you mentioned in a previous article (https://www.tor.com/2023/08/01/five-classic-sf-stories-about-letting-a-i-do-all-the-work/)? Yes, the plots are very similar. In fact, both mention trips to Rio as the sort of dream that marriage will preclude. A cynic might wonder if Nourse just decided to expand the Braling subplot of the Bradbury. In fact, the parallels are close enough that I didn’t care to mention the story in the body of the essay.
[2]As you may know, Bob, robots are notoriously infertile. There are robot partner stories that feature human self-inflicted extinction events. Charles Stross to the courtesy phone, please.
[3]If only there had been some way that Phil could have somehow obtained another robot of the same mass-produced design and modified it in the same way he and Dave modified Helen. Now, you might say Phil wanted Helen, not a replica. However, there’s a subplot about Phil and Dave dating (unnamed, I think) twins prior to Helen’s introduction; Phil clearly wants what Dave has but will settle for look-alikes.
What, no flurry of comments pointing out I overlooked Chester 9000 5000?
(Don’t google that at work)
“The Synergy Sculpture” (1978) by Terrence L. Brown. A married couple invests in a Synergy Sculpture, that reflects the state of their relationship:
Despite their relationship having problems, they put on a brave face to keep the sculpture happy.
2: I was going to say that sounds very familiar, then I checked the link to see it was in Orbit 20, which I reviewed.
A note for the moderators: a would-be commentor notified me that when they tried to comment, the Captcha showed a message: “ERROR for site owner: Invalid site key”.
I reviewed that story! In fact, I reviewed all the Orbits back in 2022.
A commentor elsewhere points out this informative and relevant PSA.
I recall Frederik Pohl’s story “Day Million” (1966) as having a very high-tech attitude towards marriage – one which obviated all sorts of relationship problems in a direct and simple manner.
Are stories with clone wives (husbands?) more common these days? I can’t think of any robot spouse stories and the most recent one in the article is almost half a century old.
It seems to me a clone with the memories of a spouse runs into the same question encountered in Topper: does the death of the original end the marriage or does the survival of memories mean death did not part them?
I doubt anyone replacing their spouse with a clone is going to quibble about the state of their wedding vows.
8: Whereas I suspect it is the sort of arrangement rules lawyers would love.
Has anyone written a story where someone produces a copy of their now-divorced spouse copied when they were still happy with the marriage, then argued that since they’re happily to the young duplicate, they do not owe alimony to the version they divorced?
I am certain I’ve read at least one story where a sad man uses time travel or duplication technology or something to replay the early days of a failed relationship so he could get it right this time. What he discovers is that there were far more ways for him to fail than he knew. What was that story?
@8 I remember Silverberg writing something like that.
@9 Turtledove’s Counting Down and Counting Up?
@3, @@.-@: Yes you did, and it was your review of Orbit 20 that introduced me to the story, making me able to answer the scifi.stackexchange.com question.
@8
This matches a portion of The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. The viewpoint middle-aged Daniel keeps trying to convince another middle-aged Daniel not to keep chasing the young female variant (Donna? Diana? Can’t remember) earlier and earlier in their relationship. The relationship wasn’t really “failed” but had run its course when both variants were young, and the older variant wanted that relationship back.
There might be 5 fairly recent stories about women solving the ‘problems of marriage’ with robot spouses.
“Older novels often leave the impression that while many heterosexual men might have had lust in their hearts, they didn’t actually like women much. Some seemed to outright hate women, or at least wives.”
Wasn’t that the core philosophy of the Jack Nicholson character in Carnal Knowledge?
@8 et al: Karawynn Long’s 1993 story “Adjusting the Moon” has what may be a somewhat similar premise, albeit with different technology: a woman facing an important conversation with her boyfriend about their future uses VR technology to rehearse the conversation in advance. Unfortunately, the effort only reminds her of how many ways the conversation could go wrong, which throws her off further when she and her boyfriend actually have the conversation, and he does not respond the way she “predicted.”
@11 The Turtledove only exposes one new way to fail – by being a patronizing jerk.
!5. This seems to be the story of “Jake’s Thing” by Kingsley Amis.
Can suggest only one remedy
“Who chooseth me must give & hazard all he hath”
Asimov’s “Satisfaction Guaranteed” is at least tangentially relevant here. But the robot in the story isn’t spousal material, just a household appliance with unexpected benefits.
Asimov’s ideas about marriage seem to have become more conventional and narrow-minded the longer he’d been married. Bayta Darell is a star-hopping adventurer and galaxy-saving hero. Most of his female characters in the 50s are just present or future Mrs. Nobodies.
Asimov’s “Hostess” features a character learning something significant about the nature of some human marriages.
Egan’s “Closer” has lovers learning to know each other very well indeed, which has unfortunate consequences.
Not a book but in the movie Serenity in the Firefly verse, tech geek Mr. Universe married the female android Lenore. She was programmed with a secret message for Mal that was critical to defeating the bad guys. Seemed to be a happy marriageuntil bad guys arrived.
Time to mention ‘What Are Little Girls Made Of?’, ‘I, Mudd’, and ‘Requiem for Methuselah’ from the original series of Star Trek, all of which involve android substitutes for female companionship (‘Male androids? Well, I suppose they have their uses, but…’)
@19: In Robots of Dawn, there’s a fully functional male robot (similar to Daneel) as the “murder” victim; Gladia considers him her husband.
That description of Hogan’s Till Death Do Us Part makes me suspect that we are for sure getting a reverse O. Henry ending where the husband kills his wife, only to find she was also remote piloting an avatar and that’s who he had fallen in love with haha.
I’ve seen mention of Helen O’Loy but never read it. JDN’s summary makes me think it might have been an inspiration for the movie Weird Science (although I guess there is a long tradition of stories about men building the perfect woman)
I suggest Pat Murphy’s short story “His Vegetable Wife.”
IMPERIAL EARTH by Clarke and GREAT NORTH ROAD by Hamilton seems to show some ways to do without women at all. The In Death books by JD Robb often feature androids which have been programmed in all sorts of fun way.
Both from memory:
There was a Sheckley story where people who are too busy to court have androids who substitute for them. The androids go off to the stars together.
In _The Female Man_ there’s a society where women have artificial “men” (modified apes, I think).
Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End features contractual marriages of fixed length, optionally renewable. Always seemed a reasonable idea to me.