Robot officiates wedding:
June 2007, South Korea …

A robot has acted as master of ceremonies at a South Korean wedding in what its creators claim is a world first.

Tiro the robot assisted at the wedding of Seok Gyeong-jae, one of the engineers who designed it, and his bride at Daejeon, 130km south of Seoul.

… In a male voice, the robot introduced the couple to the crowd, let the couple bow to them and performed its duties.

Manufacturer Hanool Robotics claims it is the first time a robot has been used as master of ceremonies at a wedding.

- smc.au.com: June 18, 2007: Link.

I think I wouldn’t care to have a machine play a traditionally human role in my wedding. Nonetheless, I try to keep an open mind — and in any case, to each their own….

I’m reminded of Good News From The Vatican, Robert Silverberg’s 1971 short story about the robot cardinal who might become pope. Silverberg is one of my favorite writers, and this story is one of the reasons why:

“If he’s elected,” says Rabbi Mueller, “he plans an immediate time-sharing agreement with the Dalai Lama and a reciprocal plug-in with the head programmer of the Greek Orthodox church, just for starters…”

“What does he look like?” Miss Harshaw asks.

Rabbi Mueller removes his sunglasses… “I can tell you that his Eminency is tall and distinguished, with a fine voice and a gentle smile…”

“But he’s mounted on wheels, isn’t he?” Kenneth persists.

“On treads,” replies the rabbi, giving Kenneth a fiery, devastating look. “Treads, like a tractor has. But I don’t think treads are spiritually inferior to feet, or, for that matter, to wheels…”

- Technovelgy: Link.

“Good News From the Vatican” appears in Beyond the Safe Zone, among other Silverberg anthologies.

The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV is another Silverberg short story about religion and science fiction — again, one of my favorites. Instead of Christianity and robots, we have Judaism and aliens. Silverberg biographer Edgar Chapman nicely summarizes the story:

“The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV” [is] a tale in which Silverberg treats Jewish legend lightly, yet also endows it with new vigor in the setting of an alien planet. Here a “dybbuk,” or ghost of a man recently dead, takes possession of a Kunivar, or local alien, near a colony of two Jewish communities, a liberal enclave and a closely knit band of Hasidic Jews. The narrator, a complacent liberal, has his smug assumptions shattered by the appearance of the dybbuk, for it ressurects a legend he had thought discredited as mere supersition.

Even more astonished is the liberal rabbi, who finds the existence of a dybbuk virtually impossible to accept …. The dybbuk, something of a comic figure, is peculiarly insistent and obnoxious in its demand for attention, an amusing touch that heightens the comedy. At last, the liberal community is obliged to turn for help to a leader they have despised, the “tzaddik” of the Hasidic community, more a primitive shaman than a rabbi. The tzaddik, Reb Shmuel, a powerful figure with an imposing presence, arrives to perform the exorcism and does it effectively.

The story concludes with comic reversals that allow none of the characters to come off looking morally superior, although all gain a measure of self-respect ….

- Edgar L. Chapman, The Road to Castle Mount: The Science Fiction of Robert Silverberg: Link.

[UPDATE: above link died shortly after I posted this post.
In lieu, see The Road to Castle Mount @ Amazon.com: Link.]

“Dybbuk” also appears in “Beyond the Safe Zone”.

Robert Silverberg @ Wikipedia: Link.

And speaking of dybbuks, see also — why not? –
The Dybbuk (or Between Two Worlds) by S. Ansky: Link.

~ Karl Jones