Dr. Everett developed genometric programming which allows production robots to create replicas of themselves. His widely quoted dictum "There is no intelligence without reproduction" has proved a guiding principle of robot design and production throughout the 30s and 40s.
It is hard for us today to imagine life before emrobs. As recently as 40 years ago, as some of you well remember, robots were large and cumbersome devices -- primarily employed in manufacturing or in the armed services.
Imagine a turn-of-the- century geek visiting our world. How would this person autoimage the constantly churning assembly and disassembly of objects around us? When we want an automobile, our emrobs build themselves into one in just a few minutes. When we need a larger dining-room table, we simply ask for it to be enlarged. We can change just about any material good into any other with a simple voice command. All this is made possible by reproducing microscopic robots and their auto-manufacturing abilities.
Thus it is exquisitely ironic that Dr. Everett rejected intervention by medrobs (medical emrobs). Most experts agree that his prostate cancer was operable. Late in his life Dr. Everett came to believe that medical applications of genometric programming ran counter to what he called ``the essence of being human.'' In the end, he died for that belief.
Medrobs have rendered today's living beings virtually immortal. With the exception of certain glands, almost every organ is reproducible or repairable.
Today, death in a hospital setting is virtually unknown. Untreated murder, undiscovered deaths, and major accidents are the remaining causes of permanent death.
And now, even these causes of mortality may be brought under control. Police units in Brasilia are experimenting with rapid wound-healing emrobs. In August, in a remarkable demonstration, an unshielded officer of the Amazonian Federation demonstrated the new medrob prototypes. He was repeatedly shot in the chest at point-blank range with a 13mm handgun. After each shot, medrobs were able to reassemble the wounded portions of his body within a fraction of a second.
Dr. Everett, in a widely viewed post-mortem holo, denounced such interference with human life. "Just as reproduction is a basic quality of true intelligence, so is death. Emrob formations are disassembled at the end of each task. The same must hold true for humans as well," the ersatz Everett intoned.
This holo was immediately joined by hundreds of respondents, ranging from medical ethicists who argued that preserving life is the highest human virtue, to Cyberiad nationals who stated the importance of populating the other worlds with humanity and/or humanelles. It is felt by many commentators that Dr. Everett's pride forced him to reject medical emrob treatment.
He is survived by his wife, Lily Henderson; lovers Ian Masterson, Urika Bjorden, and former senator Constance Dillman. Dr. Everett had no biological children. Surrogate children include flautist Feydor Brinkman, and Sasha Lorgan, president of the Ganymead Security Union, as well as 368 other surrogates. Memorial contributions should be made in idea form to "Conjecture: The Magazine of Unbridled Speculation". umag.conjects @farmington.com
Born August 12, 1941 in Detroit, she was the daughter of Thomas R. and Anita (McDaniels) Gartonby. She was a freedom fighter, homemaker and a member of the Grace Ecstatic Fellowship.
Survivors include 28 semi-biological children and no surrogates, 489 semi- and quasi-biological grandchildren and 3,908 quasi-biological great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at corniceblohr @ archangel. com 7:00pm CST 28.4.59
