"Dolly" is a 2011 science fiction/police procedural short story by Elizabeth Bear. It was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction.

Synopsis

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When a billionaire is killed by his sex robot, police must determine whether the robot was a murder weapon, or the culprit.

Reception

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In Locus, Lois Tilton found the story "rather sad", and noted that the murder mystery "distract(ed)" from the theme of "humans forming attachments to artificial beings".[1] Tangent Online considered it "interesting", and praised Bear for "subversion of the machine's role".[2]

At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Paul Kincaid described it as "not a bad story (...) efficiently told, with enough detail of character and setting to reward the reader", but added that he was disappointed by what he saw as Bear's re-use of tropes first developed by Isaac Asimov in the 1940s.[3]

Communications of the ACM included it in an article on the use of science fiction to teach computer ethics, noting in particular its relevance to deontology.[4]

Adaptation

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In 2021, Apple announced that it had won the right to produce a full-length adaptation of "Dolly", which would star Florence Pugh, and have a script by Vanessa Taylor and Drew Pearce.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early November, by Lois Tilton, in Locus; published November 5, 2010; retrieved April 3, 2019
  2. ^ Asimov's -- January 2011, reviewed by Mark Lord, at Tangent Online; published November 14, 2010; retrieved April 3, 2019
  3. ^ The Widening Gyre: 2012 Best of the Year Anthologies, reviewed by Paul Kincaid, at the Los Angeles Review of Books; published September 3, 2012; retrieved April 3, 2019
  4. ^ How to Teach Computer Ethics through Science Fiction, by Emanuelle Burton, Judy Goldsmith, and Nicholas Mattei; in Communications of the ACM August 2018, Vol. 61 No. 8, Pages 54-64; doi: 10.1145/3154485
  5. ^ Apple Studios Lands Hot Package ‘Dolly’ With Florence Pugh On Board To Star And Vanessa Taylor And Drew Pearce Penning The Script, at Deadline Hollywood; by Justin Kroll; published February 10, 2021; retrieved February 10, 2021
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