Lio by Mark Tatulli for June 18, 2021

Play what? Robot apocalypse and enslave humans?

Nice A C Clarke reference there.

I’m afraid that ae-35 unit is going to fail within 72 hours.

Play a nice game of chess?

I’m sorry, Dave, but he can’t do that.

“Please, Papa Lio”?

“Open the pod bay door, Hal!”

I need a new set of motivators for myself.

Here’s a link to the “2001” AE-35 unit: https://2001.fandom.com/wiki/AE-35_unit

He needs help building the interoccitor.

Does this mean there’s also a non-carbon-based Lio unit?

Sure, but he’ll have to open the pod bay door.

How cute. Wonder who else in Lio’s neighborhood is into the building of robots, dangerous and otherwise.

Dave: [about the AE35 communications device] Well HAL, I’m damned if I can find anything wrong with it.

HAL: Yes, it’s puzzling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this before. I would recommend that we put the unit back in operation and let it fail. It should then be a simple matter to track down the cause. We can certainly afford to be out of communication for the short time it will take to replace it.

Love the 2001 reference.