The Ego Machine
by Henry Kuttner
When a slightly mad robot drunk on AC, wants you to join an experiment in optimum ecology--don\'t do it! After all, who wants to argue like Disraeli or live like Ivan the Terrible? Celebrated playwright Nicholas Martin didn’t read the small print in his Hollywood options contract. Now he’s facing five years of servitude to a conceited director named Raoul St. Cyr, who’s taken a thoughtful play about Portuguese fishermen and added dancing mermaids. When it seems the plot has changed to include a robot from the future Nicholas looses all hope, but this robot may be just what he needs to win his freedom. The Ego Machine was first published in the May, 1952 issue of Space Science Fiction magazine.