But Whether Men Do

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"The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." —B.F. Skinner

But Whether Men Do is a science fiction novel set Twenty Minutes Into the Future by first-time author R. Anthony Mahan. The story focuses on the creation and integration of incredibly humanlike robots — SHEMs, short for Synthetic Humanoid Emulation Machines — into society and examines society's willingness (or unwillingness) to accept them. Created by the genius Dr. Danson, SHEMs are meant to improve the lives of humans and serve them; they are programmed to feel joy in performing their assigned task and to feel pain if they disobey. To prevent any sort of robotic uprising, Danson ingrained a code of ethics into every SHEM produced, so that they may never harm a human being, even if ordered to do so.

Tropes used in But Whether Men Do include:

• The Atoner: Danson's motivation for creating the SHEMs.
• Brain Uploading: Danson, and later Haley.
• Child Prodigy: Mankins.
• Do Androids Dream: A large portion of the book is based around this premise.
• Genki Girl: Alice at times.
• Ho Yay: Some readers have gotten vibes between Mankins and Danson.
• Humans Are Bastards: The SHEMs end up being the victim of too much mistreatment to count.
• Jerkass: Danny's second baby sitter, who struck him and put him into a closet when he asked for food. Also, Danson and Mankins have bits of this.
• Just a Machine: Invoked by many of the characters to justify their actions.
• Significant Name: The SHEMs.
• Spider Scientist Zombie Robot: The resurrected Dr. Danson spends some time in the body of a robot spider.
• Replacement Goldfish: Mankins creates a SHEM as one of these for his daughter, Haley.
• Ridiculously Human Robots
• Robot Girl: Many, but notably Betty.
• Shout Out: Officers Powell and Donovan.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The whole premise of the story.
• The Woobie: Poor Bruce.
• Zeerust: Using needles to etch the programming into the chips instead of, say, a focused ion beam or something equally capable of atomic-level etching.