[1] Shameless self-promotion: this post on Mormons and robots continues a series of posts I wrote a few years ago on similes and metaphors used to describe Mormons. Comparisons included: Hindus in India, cows, Bluebeard, lice, crickets/katydids, mayflies, Happy Valley, horns (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), and sundry other organisms.

[2] ?Mr. Dukakis [Michael Dukakis, 1988 presidential candidate, Democrat, governor of Massachusetts] continually has to counter charges that he is a robot.? Henry Tatum, ?Failures on the Campaign Trail,? The Dallas Morning News, 1988 Oct 12. ?When he is as lacking is [sic] humor and oratorical skills as Dukakis, he can seem almost robot-like.? David Broder, ?Moving Forward Pays Off for Dukakis,? Ocala Star-Banner, Ocala, FL, 1988 Apr 24 Sun, p 12C. ?By contrast, the Bush campaign and its media, shaped by political veteran Roger Ailes, have from the start held to a consistent and unified goal: to paint Bush as a family man with mainstream values and leadership goals, and Dukakis as an inexperienced, left-wing robot who is soft on crime, weak on defense and holds values alien to most Americans.? Jill Lawrence, Washington (AP), ?Everyone Has Suggestions for Dukakis,? The Dispatch, Lexington, NC, 1988 Oct 21 Fri, p 5. ?Rep. Larry McDonald, D-Ga., has denied a charge by his Republican opponent for the 7th District congressional seat that he is a ?robot? of the John Birch Society.? [skip 4 short paragraphs; McDonald, on phone interview:] ?If, indeed, I am the puppet of any organization?any person making such a statement should back up that statement?? Marietta, GA, (AP), ?Collins Charge Denied,? Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Georgia, vol 59 no 194, 1976 Aug 17 Tue, p 2. Jane Howard, ?Forward Day by Day; The 38th First Lady: Not a Robot at All,? New York Times, 1974 Dec 08, Section SM, p 324. Writing about Roman Catholics: ?In his business his eye is turned to efficiency and progress, but in religion he is a robot who can only recite the answers he has learned.? James Kavanagh, A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church (Trident), as quoted in John Barkham (Saturday Review Service), ?Parish Priest Argues Against Traditional Catholic Teachings,? Eugene Register-Guard, Eugene, OR, 1967 Jun 18, Emerald Empire (Sunday magazine insert), p 16.

[3] Below I provide some links to appearances of robot Mormons. I don?t intend a detailed list, just a general hand-wave in the direction of easily-multipliable examples. Here and throughout I have mostly ignored change over time. Mitt Romney has often been called a robot by political commentators, from partisan humorists (1, 2, 3) to mainstream journalists/op-editorialists (1, 2, 3, 4); Mormons are sometimes called robots, Borg, Morg, or Morgbots (1, 2 (indirectly from our own M Bowman), 3); Mormons, particularly Mormon women, are sometimes compared to ?Stepford Wives.? (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). A quick Mormon Archipelago search also reveals multiple intra-Mormon usages (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), most recently at Peculiar People. I found a few Mormon Terminators and Cylons, but not nearly as many as the others. (To be clear: there are plenty of websites pointing to the Mormon connections to Battlestar Galactica and Cylons, but not very many descriptions of Mormons as Cylons.) Also: I?m focusing on Mormons and ignoring non-Mormon aspects; my unverified sense is that there are Mormon robots running around the internet than, say, specifically Baptist robots. For the most part, I have not distinguished mainstream commentary from specifically anti-Mormon or former-Mormon commentary.

[4] Nineteenth-century fiction (and non-fiction) about Mormons often emphasized conversion processes or forces such as ?magnetic attraction,? kidnapping, mesmerism, and violence. See, for example, Terryl Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, p 150-153.

[5] For example, ?English Children Flee Robot Bombs? (London, 1944 Jul 08), Painesville Telegraph, Painesville, OH, 1944 Jul 08 Sat, p 1.

[6] Charles Manson did not directly kill anyone. He was tried along with the ?actual? killers, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel, on the theory that he was part of a conspiracy. Both the prosecution and defense used a ?Robot Theory? to, respectively, connect Manson to the killers or to disconnect the killers from culpability. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi used ?robot? eight times in his summation, which was widely reported. Bugliosi?s best-selling book Helter Skelter also used the ?robot? characterization. (I have not verified if the subsequent movies also referred to ?robots?). Robots in the summation: ?when Charles Manson sent his robots out on a mission of murder?; ?when he sent his robots off on a mission like that?; ?That wasn’t enough that his robots had just viciously cut down and slaughtered five human beings?; ?Not just a robot, but a bloodthirsty robot. Bloodthirsty robots.?; ?And then silently snaking, snaking out of that residence to go down and get his bloodthirsty robots.?; ?The Family, the Family that lived at Spahn Ranch in the very, very, last analysis, was nothing more than a closely knit band of vagabond robots who were slavishly obedient to one man and one man only, their master, their leader, their god, Charles Manson.? The State of California v. Charles Manson, et al., Closing Argument, delivered by Vincent Bugliosi, Los Angeles, California, 1971 Jan 15. The summation was widely reported, eg, Linda Deutsch, Los Angeles (AP), ?Prosecution Claims Manson Women were ?Robots,?? Florence Times ? Tri-Cities Daily, Florence, AL, vol 101, no 355, 1970 Dec 22 Tue Afternoon, p 16;  Los Angeles (AP), ?Prosecution Describes 3 Women on Trial as Robots for Manson,? Ocala Star-Banner, Ocala, FL, 1970 Dec 22, p 2A. Los Angeles, Jan 12, ??Robot Theory? Cited in Defense of Manson’s 3 Co-Defendants,? The New York Times, 1971 Jan 13, p 36. ?Jury Deliberations Near As Tate Trial Nears End? (Los Angeles, [AP]), The Press-Courier, Oxnard, CA, 1971 Jan 13 Wed, p 3. Decades later (2008), commenting on the potential for ?compassionate release? for Susan Atkins, Bugliosi wrote, ?My view is that anyone who opposes her request, other than relatives of the seven Tate-La Bianca victims . . . is either being robotic or extremely callous.? Vincent Bugliosi, in email to James Whitehouse (Atkin?s lawyer), as quoted in Andrew Blankstein and Hector Becerra, ?Few back Atkins’ freedom bid,? Los Angeles Times, 2008 Jul 15 (ellipsis as in Blankstein and Becerra).

[7] ?Mrs. Neeley?s lawyers have spent the trial trying to prove that she was a ?robot? in her husband?s hands and was not responsible for her actions.? Fort Payne (AP), ?Mrs. Neelley says she ?was piece of meat,?? Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, AL, 1983 Mar 16 Wed, p 13 (page header says ?1982?).

[8] I am focusing here on the role of speculative fiction in constructing the perception of robots. It also played a role in constructing perceptions of religious groups. For example, AC Clarke?s Rendezvous with Rama features a super-reliable religious character, Boris Rodrigo. Many of his attributes have been applied to Mormons. Arthur C Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama (NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973; citations from NY: Bantam, 1990). ?To all his shipmates, Boris Rodrigo was something of an enigma. The quiet, dignified communications officer was popular with the rest of the crew, but he never entered fully into their activities and always seemed a little apart—marching to the music of a different drummer. [¶] As indeed he was, being a devout member of the Fifth Church of Christ, Cosmonaut. ? Invariably, they were efficient, conscientious, and absolutely reliable. They were universally respected, and even liked, especially since they made no attempt to convert others. Yet there was also something slightly spooky about them. Norton could never understand how men with advanced scientific and technical training could possibly believe some of the things he had heard Cosmo Christers state as incontrovertible fact.? (58-59); ?Even in normal times, Rodrigo was a very grave and sober person. ? The calm, blue eyes stared into his. He had never known Rodrigo to lose control, to be other than completely self-assured. All the Cosmo-Christers were like this; it was one of the benefits of their faith, and it helped to make them good spacemen. Sometimes, however, their unquestioning certainty was just a little annoying to those unfortunates who had not been vouchsafed the Revelation.? (103); ?This situation must have been a shock to Rodrigo, but he would not have resigned himself to passive acquiescence. The Cosmo-Christers were very energetic, competent people. ? As for Lieutenant Rodrigo himself, he seemed to regard the possibility of instant apotheosis [ie, death while defusing a nuclear bomb] with complete equanimity.? (208); ?Though Rodrigo was not gambling on it—Cosmo-Christers never gambled—he was quite sure that there would be no such instantaneous reaction.? (212); ?Lieutenant Rodrigo was a man of almost pathological honesty.? (217).

[9] Emily Belanger discussed an aspect of Mormon social awkwardness and emotions last week at Peculiar People (?Mormon Affect as Seen in Tap Dancing Missionaries and Laughing Robots,? 2013 May 10).

[10] Writing about child eating schedules: ?But most mothers are sure he must have food on time. Even if they try letting him go without food or with less than they think he should have at any meal, they don?t have the heart to wait till he is really hungry. They go back to the old way of working on him as if he were a robot.? Garry Cleveland Myers, ?Child Training,? Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Daytona Beach, FL, vol 31, no 230, 1955 Sep 26 Mon, p 4. This version of the metaphor also appears in athletics, usually with a favorable connotation.

[11] ?Marilyn wasn?t swimming in a straight line now. She was responding to my calls as if she were a robot.? Gus Ryder, as quoted in Marilyn Bell, ?Ordeal by Water,? under ?Lenten Guideposts,? The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, 1956 Mar 01 Thu, p 17. ?An emaciated 16-year-old girl has been freed from a foul-smelling bedroom where she reportedly was locked up by her parents for four years, police said. [¶] The girl, who neighbors said is named Laura, is 5-foot-2 and weighed 63 pounds when rescued Wednesday. She looked like a ?dazed robot? as she was led away by police, a neighbor said.? Long Beach, CA (AP) ??Dazed Robot? freed from captivity,? The Bulletin, Bend, OR, 1976 Jun 18, p 17.

[12] Note that the association of Mormons and robots is not confined to the US, so future historians will need to cast a wider net than I have.