Wikipedia: “With Folded Hands…” is a 1947 science fiction novelette by American writer Jack Williamson. Willamson’s influence for this story was the aftermath of World War II and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his concern that “some of the technological creations we had developed with the best intentions might have disastrous consequences in the long run.”
The novelette, which first appeared in the July 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, was included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two (1973) after being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965. It was the first of several Astounding stories adapted for NBC’s radio series Dimension X.
The story was followed by a novel-length rewrite, with a different setting and inventor. This was serialized, also in “Astounding” (March, April and May 1948), as “…And Searching Mind”, and finally published as “The Humanoids” (1948). Williamson followed with a sequel, The Humanoid Touch, published in 1980.
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