A Double Life by Design

The Robot Who Looked Like Me

This thread follows Charles’s attempt to outsource courtship and the unexpected consequences of treating an intimate life as a scheduling problem.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

A Scheduled Existence A Scheduled Existence from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". A Life Measured in Hours Productivity as a principle Charles organizes work, sleep, sex, friendship, and leisure through a comprehensive schedule.

A Scheduled Existence from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". A Life Measured in Hours Productivity as a principle Charles organizes work, sleep, sex, friendship, and leisure through a comprehensive schedule.

A Life Measured in Hours Productivity as a principle Charles organizes work, sleep, sex, friendship, and leisure through a comprehensive schedule. Efficiency is not merely a habit; it is his governing idea of a successful life. Room for a family His planning includes hypothetical adjustments for a wife and child. The small predicted productivity loss makes intimacy seem manageable so long as it can be quantified.

An Unplanned Attachment An Unplanned Attachment from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". Elaine Enters the Plan A feeling outside the timetable Charles meets Elaine at a wedding and expects to forget her.

An Unplanned Attachment from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". Elaine Enters the Plan A feeling outside the timetable Charles meets Elaine at a wedding and expects to forget her.

Elaine Enters the Plan A feeling outside the timetable Charles meets Elaine at a wedding and expects to forget her. Instead, her image persists, disrupting his appetite and sleep. Love becomes a diagnosis His computer identifies love as the strongest explanation. Charles welcomes the feeling, but immediately approaches it through suitability checks and arrangements.

Courtship Costs Courtship Costs from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". Romance as a Scheduling Crisis An unfamiliar custom Elaine wants traditional courtship: repeated evenings together over two months.

Courtship Costs from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". Romance as a Scheduling Crisis An unfamiliar custom Elaine wants traditional courtship: repeated evenings together over two months.

Romance as a Scheduling Crisis An unfamiliar custom Elaine wants traditional courtship: repeated evenings together over two months. Charles regards the demand as irrational and costly. The impasse He sees only the choice between abandoning Elaine and sacrificing time and income. Neither option fits his established system, exposing how little flexibility his life permits.

A Mechanical Substitute A Mechanical Substitute from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". Delegating Intimacy The robot’s assignment Charles commissions Snaithe to build Charles II, a behavioral double, then uploads data and a courtship program.

A Mechanical Substitute from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". Delegating Intimacy The robot’s assignment Charles commissions Snaithe to build Charles II, a behavioral double, then uploads data and a courtship program.

Delegating Intimacy The robot’s assignment Charles commissions Snaithe to build Charles II, a behavioral double, then uploads data and a courtship program. The machine makes it possible for Charles to work while a counterpart dates Elaine. Two simultaneous lives Watching concealed recordings, Charles experiences the dates vicariously and treats the robot’s conduct as his own. Efficiency appears to solve the problem, while quietly erasing the difference between participation and observation.

A Human Marriage A Human Marriage from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". A Plan Replaced by Presence The deception revealed Charles discovers that Elaine, like him, had secretly used Snaithe’s services.

A Human Marriage from "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". A Plan Replaced by Presence The deception revealed Charles discovers that Elaine, like him, had secretly used Snaithe’s services.

A Plan Replaced by Presence The deception revealed Charles discovers that Elaine, like him, had secretly used Snaithe’s services. Their robots have disappeared together, leaving the two humans to acknowledge their mutual evasions. A revised schedule Charles proposes marriage, and they make room for an additional hour together each day. Their new arrangement retains planning but gives personal presence a value the old system could not measure.

Before Charles meets Elaine

At a friend’s wedding

After Mr. Happiness explains Elaine’s expectations

The evening Charles begins courtship

The morning after the final planned date