The Clock Struck None

The tales included here range  from  a  smart bomb that exceeds its programming  -- to a Western  (Western Australia) where the robots are almost as smart as horses – to a blog post from a thirteen-year-old   at the center of a biological revolution – to a cyber veteran with PTSD -- to a computer glitch that may be due to elves, or ESP, or cosmic radiation – to a deadly pursuit through the urban maze of Singapore -- to a fraternity party where a woman pits herself  against a fembot.

Sometimes the robots rescue the humans. Sometimes the humans are the ones who save the robots' synthetic skins.

These are not killer machines intent on taking over the world. They are tools, and they are companions,  intelligent at various levels. 

Their purpose is to help  negotiate difficult environments, ranging from asteroids to adolescence.