A Digital Downer

To begin with, it must be made clear that robots are not humans. It matters not how emotional, empathetic, humorous, or realistic they may seem. All a robot can project is that which it has been taught to project.

So why was this one acting so depressed?

LARFBOT was designed to be a children’s party entertainer. By a clown.

Yet all the hunk of anthropomorphised metal seemed capable of doing was reciting tragic poetry, reaching its little golf club arms up to the moon and playing a mournfully slowed down version of its laugh track through its grit-toothed grin.

‘Ah-hah. Ah-hah.’

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#FLASHFICTION101 January 2021 SHORTLISTED ENTRY

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