Short Story Showcase #14:  St. Roomba’s Gospel

This series focuses on stories that are both enjoyable and do something that I find interesting from a technical perspective.  This week it’s a genuinely new take on the trope of “robots with souls.”

You’ve probably read/seen/listened to at least a dozen stories about robots developing souls.  In fact, the first story to use the word “robot” had them learning about violence and love, so the question of how humanlike these mechanical creations can become has been with us since the beginning.  As a result, saying something new and interesting on this topic is challenging.  

Some writers might realize that and give up, feeling that anything they produce would be too derivative.  Rachel K. Jones, though, gave us the authorial equivalent of a “hold my beer” with St. Roomba’s Gospel (published in Diabolical Plots), in which a church’s small cleaning robot becomes sentient and start listening in on the sermons.  It’s an interesting look at how robots might see us and their place in the world, as well as a reminder to be mindful of how we treat our tools.