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129.2.129.98
Since: Dec, 1969
1st Mar, 2011 05:06:28 PM
This sounds familiar to me too. I think at one point the robot mocks them for filling him up with science and facts instead of philosophy or anything that would give it a sense of morality. And it started just as a program and somehow gave itself a body? I'm not sure. Sorry I can't help more.
A sci-fi kids book, although might be teen as well, published sometime in the last decade. It's set in a normal small town in the US. Several kids decide to build a humanoid robot. They load up numerous different books on his system, to give him an understanding of science and whatnot. Unfortunately, no one bothers to put any sort of inhibitions in his system. The robot goes berserk, although I can't remember how far off the deep end he goes. I remember that the kids try to pass the robot off as an exchange or transfer student from Peoria, Illinois. At the end of the story, the Cool Old Guy, who is probably the grandfather or non-parent relative of one of the kids, electrocutes/incapacitates/destroys the robot with a device connected to a telephone. I think he gets wise to the robot's existence towards the end. I remember that he calls the school in Peoria but finds that the android never went to school there. I can't remember the name of this book, or even any of the names of the characters. Thanks!