{"id":314,"date":"2021-01-16T13:17:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T13:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=314"},"modified":"2021-02-19T12:05:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T12:05:16","slug":"humans-and-other-people-by-sean-william-swanwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"Humans and Other People by Sean William Swanwick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Humans and Other People<\/em><\/strong> by Sean William Swanwick1<\/sup> (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, January\/February 2021) opens with Mitchell and a robot called Simone (\u201cSimone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir\u201d) in a boat, with Mitchell diving down to a drowned Atlantic City Municipal Court to retrieve various documents. When he surfaces, Simone gives him news of an apartment fire. The pair are soon back on land and at the site of the blaze, where they manage to finagle matters so they are the only ones permitted to enter the \u201cunsafe\u201d building. This is followed by a meeting where they shake down the residents to get the salvage contract for their possessions.
The main part of the story (spoiler) sees the pair at work in the building, in which, the guard warns them, there may be an \u201canthroform\u201d lurking. They soon find out that it is a robot when it physically attacks Mitchell and then Simone. During this episode they realise that it is made from standard parts, speaks Chinese, and its power levels are low (the only thing the creature says during the scuffle is that it has 6% power remaining). This encounter leads to more robots in the attic, where Mitchell gives them batteries and then rigs a solar panel to give them a permanent power supply. Then he and Simone leave.
The plot is by far the weakest part of this piece: not only is it relatively uncomplicated, but the idea of giving experimental robots of an unknown origin (one of whom has previously attacked you) a power supply and leaving them to it seems rather foolhardy. However, the story is fluently told, and there is a lively relationship between Mitchell and Simone that results in some sparky and\/or quirky conversation. This isn\u2019t limited to the exchanges between the pair however, as the apartment owners discover:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, wait, hold on,\u201d said one of the interchangeable three. \u201cSo, we\u2019re paying, what, you? And, er, your\u2014\u201d they paused, confused. \u201cF. . . friend? Employee? The robot?\u201d Simone turned a featureless head toward the speaker and said nothing. \u201cAnd they\u2019re going to help you retrieve things?\u201d
\u201cShe is going to help.\u201d
\u201cExcuse me?\u201d
\u201cShe is going to help.\u201d Simone\u2019s tone had grown clipped. \u201cNot they. There is only me.\u201d
The marks practically fell over one another in a confused torrent of explanation. \u201cI thought robots were theys instead of its\u2014\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re definitely displaying a gender neutral\u2014\u201d \u201cWait, is robot wrong? I\u2019ve heard people saying Mobile Anthroform\u2014\u201d
Simone played an audio file of a sharp handclap as two sets of metal fingers came together, silencing the table. \u201cNo offense is taken,\u201d Simone said. \u201cIf you find yourself struggling with the nomenclature, please feel free to ignore me completely.\u201d
Mitch cursed inwardly\u2014Simone had been getting worse and worse at handling the clients. In Pittsburgh, a recent argument about the nature of identity had ended with the clients never calling again.  p. 117<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It is a mixed bag of a story, but a very promising debut: I look forward to further stories from this writer.
** (Average). 5,300 words.

1. The introduction to the story mentions Gardner Dozois (whose office manager Swanwick was) shaking a baby toy at the author when he was an infant, so I presume he is the son of Michael Swanwick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humans and Other People by Sean William Swanwick1 (Asimov\u2019s SF, January\/February 2021) opens with Mitchell and a robot called Simone (\u201cSimone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir\u201d) in a boat, with Mitchell diving down to a drowned Atlantic City Municipal Court to retrieve various documents. When he surfaces, Simone gives him news of an apartment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[17,50,4,97,12],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sean-william-swanwick","tag-17","tag-50","tag-asimovs-sf","tag-sean-william-swanwick","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}