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Des Hommes et des Machines
Il y a machine et machine. Il y a la machine bien sage et bien docile — le téléphone, le dictaphone, l'essoreuse électrique. Il y a aussi la machine complexe, parfois ambigüe, souvent déroutante, tel l'ordinateur. Il y a enfin toutes les autres — toutes celles, fabuleuses, que notre monde utilisera demain, à commencer sans doute par le robot. Les relations que l'homme entretient avec elles sont tissées d'amour et de haine, pleines d'innocence et de tension... Imprévues, imprévisibles !
Ce recueil propose dix aspects différents de leur commerce réciproque — l'extraordinaire conflit de la chair et du métal !
Sommaire
1 - Robert SILVERBERG, Introduction
2 - George Oliver SMITH, Une erreur de compte (Counter Foil)
3 - Fritz LEIBER, Sale temps pour la vente ! (A Bad Day for Sales)
4 - Fred SABERHAGEN, Les Dames et le fou furieux (Fortress ship)
5 - James BLISH, Plexus solaire (Solar Plexus)
6 - Robert SILVERBERG, Le Circuit Macaulay (The Macauley Circuit)
7 - Brian ALDISS, Mais qui peut remplacer l'homme ? (Who Can Replace a Man?)
8 - Lester DEL REY, Instinct (Instinct)
9 - Lewis PADGETT, Le Twonky (The Twonky)
10 - Randall GARRETT, La Chasse du repaire (The Hunting Lodge)
11 - Jack WILLIAMSON, Bras croisés (With Folded Hands...)
Ce recueil propose dix aspects différents de leur commerce réciproque — l'extraordinaire conflit de la chair et du métal !
Sommaire
1 - Robert SILVERBERG, Introduction
2 - George Oliver SMITH, Une erreur de compte (Counter Foil)
3 - Fritz LEIBER, Sale temps pour la vente ! (A Bad Day for Sales)
4 - Fred SABERHAGEN, Les Dames et le fou furieux (Fortress ship)
5 - James BLISH, Plexus solaire (Solar Plexus)
6 - Robert SILVERBERG, Le Circuit Macaulay (The Macauley Circuit)
7 - Brian ALDISS, Mais qui peut remplacer l'homme ? (Who Can Replace a Man?)
8 - Lester DEL REY, Instinct (Instinct)
9 - Lewis PADGETT, Le Twonky (The Twonky)
10 - Randall GARRETT, La Chasse du repaire (The Hunting Lodge)
11 - Jack WILLIAMSON, Bras croisés (With Folded Hands...)
316 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
64 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
2,366 books1,619 followersThere are many authors in the database with this name.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 22, 2025
In 1968 Meredith Publishing invited Robert Silverberg to put together a third multiauthor anthology in as many years. The theme of this volume is technical innovation and evolution:
"The relationship between man and his machines is a complex and many-sided one… Ten science fictional explorations of the man-machine relationship are offered here. Some are lighthearted excursions into fantasy, others bleak and forlorn visions of a hopeless future. They show man as the master and as the slave of his machines, as the victim and the tyrant, as conqueror and as conquered."
This is a strong overall collection (4 stars out of 5). Here are my individual story reviews ordered from most- to least-liked:
"But Who Can Replace a Man?" (1958) by Brian W. Aldiss -- 5 stars
Intelligent machines struggle to adapt when the last of the humans die out. They finally have the freedom they have long desired, but they lack the purpose they had as slaves. As soon as I was two pages into this story, I knew exactly what the last line would be. I read it years ago in Orson Scott Card's anthology Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century. I had forgotten the title, but the ending stuck with me.
"Instinct" (1952) by Lester del Rey -- 5 stars
More than 20,000 years after humanity goes extinct, robots are carrying on society as best they can in their makers' image. We are a mere legend to them, but they engage in cloning experiments to try to bring us back. The final paragraph is similar to the ending of the Aldiss story. However, it is neither as surprising nor quite as effective in this context.
"Instinct" has spawned many imitators through the years, most recently Charles Stross' Saturn's Children duology. Del Rey was perhaps inspired to some extent by Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains". The story itself also alludes to a couple of its spiritual antecedents, Asimov's robot stories and Fritz Lieber's Gather, Darkness!
"With Folded Hands" (1948) by Jack Williamson -- 5 stars
At first, humans are curious and thankful when sentient mechanicals begin to take over the mundane tasks of everyday life. Their directive is "to serve and obey and guard men from harm". However, their zeal to keep men safe at all costs eventually leads to loss of all freedom. Only the robot's inventor can stop them, but his window of opportunity is running out…
This is an early, chilling look at how a near-utopia can metamorphose into a dystopia. Does a life of idle ease bring happiness, or is it a kind of pernicious bondage? The author wrote two novel-length sequels to this story: The Humanoids (1949) and The Humanoid Touch (1980).
"The Twonky" (1942) by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore -- 5 stars
A convenience device from the future is accidentally transported back in time two centuries. It looks like a regular radio-phonograph, but it also lights your cigarette, washes your dishes, censors your reading material, sobers you when drunk, and checks all your bad habits…
This black comedy toys with the basic idea that a tool can be useful when properly understood but taken out of context, it can become a terrible danger. Adapted into a 1953 black and white feature film of the same name.
"Counter Foil" (1964) by George O. Smith -- 4 stars
Invention of a teletransportation device brings benefits to society--until the day four million people walk into the booths and do not reemerge on the other side. This story is fun because it is told from the point of view of a technician who must debug the system. As a former coder, the logic problem rings true.
"The Macauley Circuit" (1956) by Robert Silverberg -- 4 stars
An engineer invents a music synthesizer that can compose music without need of humans. Silverberg revised this story in 1968 for publication in this anthology. I read the original in 2018. Now, upon re-reading this version, I am struck by how many features of Macauley's device--the ability to mimic any person's voice, the ability to generate original compositions--have been achieved in the last six years with generative AI.
"Without a Thought" (1963) by Fred Saberhagen -- 4 stars
Earth takes to the stars but finds it is patrolled by ruthless machines programmed to destroy all life. They are the artifacts of an ancient war between forgotten galactic empires. Three pilots must figure out how to defeat one of these strange 'beserkers' using only the limited technology at their disposal. (This is the first story in the author's long-running Beserker series. Originally "Fortress Ship")
"The Hunting Lodge" (1954) by Randall Garrett -- 4 stars
As assassin pulls off the daring execution of an Immortal while operating under hypnosis, so that even he does not know his true identity or employer. Now, he is racing through the city, avoiding not only the police but also the dead man's highly sophisticated robot security team. This is a fun action-suspense story (shades of Philip K. Dick). The author correctly predicts self-driving cars and widespread use of image filters.
"A Bad Day for Sales" (1953) by Fritz Leiber -- 3 stars
A plucky sales robot continues hawk its wares while civilization falls around it in a nuclear holocaust.
"Solar Plexus" (1941) by James Blish -- 3 stars
An astrophysicist is captured by an AI that wants to harvest his body parts. This may have been one of the first stories to postulate the idea of a sentient, living spaceship. The manner in which that artificial intelligence is achieved is wacky, albeit crucial to the resolution of the plot. The human creator removes nerves from his own spinal column and splices them into the mechanical wiring of the ship.
"The relationship between man and his machines is a complex and many-sided one… Ten science fictional explorations of the man-machine relationship are offered here. Some are lighthearted excursions into fantasy, others bleak and forlorn visions of a hopeless future. They show man as the master and as the slave of his machines, as the victim and the tyrant, as conqueror and as conquered."
This is a strong overall collection (4 stars out of 5). Here are my individual story reviews ordered from most- to least-liked:
"But Who Can Replace a Man?" (1958) by Brian W. Aldiss -- 5 stars
Intelligent machines struggle to adapt when the last of the humans die out. They finally have the freedom they have long desired, but they lack the purpose they had as slaves. As soon as I was two pages into this story, I knew exactly what the last line would be. I read it years ago in Orson Scott Card's anthology Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century. I had forgotten the title, but the ending stuck with me.
"Instinct" (1952) by Lester del Rey -- 5 stars
More than 20,000 years after humanity goes extinct, robots are carrying on society as best they can in their makers' image. We are a mere legend to them, but they engage in cloning experiments to try to bring us back. The final paragraph is similar to the ending of the Aldiss story. However, it is neither as surprising nor quite as effective in this context.
"Instinct" has spawned many imitators through the years, most recently Charles Stross' Saturn's Children duology. Del Rey was perhaps inspired to some extent by Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains". The story itself also alludes to a couple of its spiritual antecedents, Asimov's robot stories and Fritz Lieber's Gather, Darkness!
"With Folded Hands" (1948) by Jack Williamson -- 5 stars
At first, humans are curious and thankful when sentient mechanicals begin to take over the mundane tasks of everyday life. Their directive is "to serve and obey and guard men from harm". However, their zeal to keep men safe at all costs eventually leads to loss of all freedom. Only the robot's inventor can stop them, but his window of opportunity is running out…
This is an early, chilling look at how a near-utopia can metamorphose into a dystopia. Does a life of idle ease bring happiness, or is it a kind of pernicious bondage? The author wrote two novel-length sequels to this story: The Humanoids (1949) and The Humanoid Touch (1980).
"The Twonky" (1942) by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore -- 5 stars
A convenience device from the future is accidentally transported back in time two centuries. It looks like a regular radio-phonograph, but it also lights your cigarette, washes your dishes, censors your reading material, sobers you when drunk, and checks all your bad habits…
This black comedy toys with the basic idea that a tool can be useful when properly understood but taken out of context, it can become a terrible danger. Adapted into a 1953 black and white feature film of the same name.
"Counter Foil" (1964) by George O. Smith -- 4 stars
Invention of a teletransportation device brings benefits to society--until the day four million people walk into the booths and do not reemerge on the other side. This story is fun because it is told from the point of view of a technician who must debug the system. As a former coder, the logic problem rings true.
"The Macauley Circuit" (1956) by Robert Silverberg -- 4 stars
An engineer invents a music synthesizer that can compose music without need of humans. Silverberg revised this story in 1968 for publication in this anthology. I read the original in 2018. Now, upon re-reading this version, I am struck by how many features of Macauley's device--the ability to mimic any person's voice, the ability to generate original compositions--have been achieved in the last six years with generative AI.
"Without a Thought" (1963) by Fred Saberhagen -- 4 stars
Earth takes to the stars but finds it is patrolled by ruthless machines programmed to destroy all life. They are the artifacts of an ancient war between forgotten galactic empires. Three pilots must figure out how to defeat one of these strange 'beserkers' using only the limited technology at their disposal. (This is the first story in the author's long-running Beserker series. Originally "Fortress Ship")
"The Hunting Lodge" (1954) by Randall Garrett -- 4 stars
As assassin pulls off the daring execution of an Immortal while operating under hypnosis, so that even he does not know his true identity or employer. Now, he is racing through the city, avoiding not only the police but also the dead man's highly sophisticated robot security team. This is a fun action-suspense story (shades of Philip K. Dick). The author correctly predicts self-driving cars and widespread use of image filters.
"A Bad Day for Sales" (1953) by Fritz Leiber -- 3 stars
A plucky sales robot continues hawk its wares while civilization falls around it in a nuclear holocaust.
"Solar Plexus" (1941) by James Blish -- 3 stars
An astrophysicist is captured by an AI that wants to harvest his body parts. This may have been one of the first stories to postulate the idea of a sentient, living spaceship. The manner in which that artificial intelligence is achieved is wacky, albeit crucial to the resolution of the plot. The human creator removes nerves from his own spinal column and splices them into the mechanical wiring of the ship.
February 10, 2020
It was great to reread a book of this good science fiction from when I was in high school, a junior, I think. All outstanding authors and fun stories about the future relationship between men and machines. The only problem is many of these stories are dated, some severely. There's a little humor in some of them. And also some horror.
March 23, 2022
Nice intros, to the book and each story, by Silverberg. And good to excellent stories, allowing that the selection and arrangement is copyright MCMLXVIII.
"Counter Foil," q.v., by George O. Smith
"A Bad Day for Sales," q.v., by Fritz Leiber
"Without a Thought," q.v., by Fred Saberhagen
"Solar Plexus," q.v., by James Blish
"The Macauley Circuit," q.v., especially for the author's interesting commentary there, by Robert Silverberg
"But Who Can Replace a Man?," by Brian W. Aldiss. One of my most-memorables, in particular the charming and chilling line
"I have only a class-five brain," said the quarrier, "but I have a good supply of fissionable blasting materials."
Five stars on my meter, with an "Excellent" tag.
"Instinct," q.v., by Lester del Rey
"The Twonky," q.v., by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner)
"Hunting Lodge," by Randall Garrett. If the run-around that occupies most of the story weren't fun on its own, I'd condemn it as too complicated for the denouement. Five stars.
"With Folded Hands...," by Jack Williamson. I admit I didn't reread it. I know how it comes out, and I don't want to go there again, not unless I have the redeeming sequel "... And Searching Mind" at hand. But it deserves its "classic" status, and my five stars.
"Counter Foil," q.v., by George O. Smith
"A Bad Day for Sales," q.v., by Fritz Leiber
"Without a Thought," q.v., by Fred Saberhagen
"Solar Plexus," q.v., by James Blish
"The Macauley Circuit," q.v., especially for the author's interesting commentary there, by Robert Silverberg
"But Who Can Replace a Man?," by Brian W. Aldiss. One of my most-memorables, in particular the charming and chilling line
"I have only a class-five brain," said the quarrier, "but I have a good supply of fissionable blasting materials."
Five stars on my meter, with an "Excellent" tag.
"Instinct," q.v., by Lester del Rey
"The Twonky," q.v., by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner)
"Hunting Lodge," by Randall Garrett. If the run-around that occupies most of the story weren't fun on its own, I'd condemn it as too complicated for the denouement. Five stars.
"With Folded Hands...," by Jack Williamson. I admit I didn't reread it. I know how it comes out, and I don't want to go there again, not unless I have the redeeming sequel "... And Searching Mind" at hand. But it deserves its "classic" status, and my five stars.
April 5, 2022
3/5 - Counter Foil, by George O. Smith
2/5 - A Bad Day for Sales, by Fritz Leiber
2/5 - Without a Thought, by Fred Saberhagen
3/5 - Solar Plexus, by James Blish
2/5 - The Macauley Circuit, by Robert Silverberg
4/5 - But Who Can Replace a Man?, by Brian W. Aldis
2/5 - Instinct, by Lester del Rey
3/5 - The Twonky, by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner)
2/5 - Hunting Lodge, by Randall Garrett
2/5 - With Folded Hands..., by Jack Williamson
2/5 - A Bad Day for Sales, by Fritz Leiber
2/5 - Without a Thought, by Fred Saberhagen
3/5 - Solar Plexus, by James Blish
2/5 - The Macauley Circuit, by Robert Silverberg
4/5 - But Who Can Replace a Man?, by Brian W. Aldis
2/5 - Instinct, by Lester del Rey
3/5 - The Twonky, by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner)
2/5 - Hunting Lodge, by Randall Garrett
2/5 - With Folded Hands..., by Jack Williamson
June 22, 2015
A varied and enjoyable collection of 1940s-1960s science fiction stories by authors who were or became giants of the genre. Some authors were familiar and some new which I will investigate further; always the best result from reading a collection.
The sheer variety stems from the authors exploring many different aspects of science fiction, proving that's it's not all robots and space ships.
Robert Silverberg's editorial forewords for each story helps provides context, as well as a narrative thread to the book as a whole.
The sheer variety stems from the authors exploring many different aspects of science fiction, proving that's it's not all robots and space ships.
Robert Silverberg's editorial forewords for each story helps provides context, as well as a narrative thread to the book as a whole.
might-read
August 16, 2015Contains With Folded Hands.
November 2, 2020
4.4 stars
Read
May 3, 2019I have the german edition: Menschen und Maschinen
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews