A classic science fiction short story and an AI switcheroo

I read it high school, in 1955: “Farewell to the Master.”

The famous sci fi movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” took its inspiration from that story.

In the short story, two aliens come to Earth in a saucer and land in Washington DC. One is a human, the other a metal robot.

At the end of the story, as the aliens (who tried to bring a message of peace to a warring world) depart, a character makes a remark about the robot to the human alien, who says…

No, no, you don’t understand. He (the robot) is the master.

Boom.

The human alien is the servant.

The metal robot is the master??

Yes. That’s the revelation.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe the robot is alive and conscious.

It’s a great shocker, and the story is well done.

The only problem, on reflection, is: NOT POSSIBLE.

Robots aren’t conscious.

Readers don’t care. They enjoy feeling the shock.

If I were writing that story, I’d give it a Part 2. On the trip home, the human and the robot would have a long conversation. It would emerge that their real mission involved imparting one STARK idea to Earthlings (and it wasn’t peace.) The idea was: robots can be conscious…

Thus inspiring the people of Earth to work in the direction of creating conscious creatures—an impossibility—

Instead,…