DIMENSION X - Almost Human (Robert Bloch)

DIMENSION X
Almost Human
May 13, 1950
Though Robert Albert Bloch is mostly recognized for his crime dramas, psychological horror, and fantasy, he wrote a plethora of short SciFi stories which were widely published in pulp magazines. Over a 60 year professional career which began when he was only 17, he authored novels, screenplays and radio plays, and he wrote for Television. His short story Almost Human was published in the magazine Fantastic Adventures in June of 1943 under the name Tarleton Fiske, a pseudonym he used when more than one of his stories was being published in the same issue of a magazine, or in consecutive issues.
Almost Human was adapted for radio by George Lefferts who leaned in on the SciFi aspects and left much of the psychological horror to the imagination. In the story a scientist who is building a sentient robot does not do a background check on the nursemaid he hires to care for his creation. This nanny's shady past comes through the door one night and disrupts the destiny of the robot, sending it on a descent into, what the professor describes as, human "emotional considerations".
HISTORICAL GLOSSARY
The host, in the opening, asks us, the listeners, "Have you heard of the new science called cybernetics?" Well, it isn't new anymore and in the many decades between the 1950s and today that word has been bandied about in relation to bio-rhythms, psycho-cybernetics, and dianetics. Today "cybernetics" sounds like a word describing pseudo-science psychobabble. But in 1950 it was the serious interdisciplinary study of brain function as it relates to feedback response. Thinking, feeling, and decision making was being studied as a brain's physical reaction to feedback, and if it was physical, then it could be reproduced in a machine.
When Duke explains to Lola why he is taking the Junior the robot with him, he says, "Junior is mine. He obeys me. What you might call a mechanical stooge." In the vernacular of today a stooge would be a henchman or minion.
During the chilling scene in which Duke torments Charlie before killing him, Duke says to the robot, "I think Charlie's yellow. You know what happens to people who turn yellow, don't you?" Being "yellow" means being weak and cowardly. People who are outwardly brave but deep down are submissive and fearful are said to be "yellow bellied". Interesting and contradictory origins are listed on Google, but I had learned long ago that the term came from the yellow taint of spoiled meat. You can tell when meat has gone bad by its yellow-ish coloring, therefore a person who has lost bravery has gone bad, and therefore is turning yellow.
As Charlie realizes he is about to be killed he says, "Now Duke, now Duke, wait a minute. You know I'd never turn stooley on anything like that. I never sang to the coppers in my life. "Stooley" is short for "Stool Pigeon". This refers to a police informant and is said to come from the fake pigeon decoys used when hunting pigeons. As for the reference to singing, there is an idiom "to sing like a canary" which means to confess, or reveal secrets, usually under duress. It may originate from the difficulty canary breeders have in getting some of their birds to sing when showing them off to potential customers. Sometimes the birds have to be persuaded to give up their lovely song, and that is paralleled to interrogation pressure the gets a criminal to give up information. And the information in this context is being given up to the police, which are called "coppers". "Copper", or the shortened version "cop" is derived from the big copper metal buttons on British police officers uniforms. So in essence Charlie is saying he would never become disloyal to his criminal friends and he has never given evidence or information to the police.
***Behind the scenes. As I am uploading this I got a "copyright material identified" notice. I thought it was the little picture from the original publication that I snuck in there. No, it was later, it was at minute 29... and RUclips said it was a song. I figured it out. It is the ending with the SPOILER DON'T READ THIS NEXT SENTENCE UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY LISTENED -- It was the robot saying "I Love You" while Lola screamed. (???) Who has a song with death screams while saying "I love you"? That is a song I don't want to hear! Because RUclips is worse that "A Logic Named Joe" and there are no humans to talk to, and none of my videos are monetized yet, I'm just going to leave it for now and figure it out later. They will allow it to be published, but if it ever gets monetized the owner of the copyright on the Death Scream Love Song will get a percentage.