"Good News from the Vatican" by Robert Silverberg

The next pope is a robot. Why did Carr, del Rey, and LeGuin think this an important story? It was probably the then recent Vatican II that many saw as the beginning of many changes within how religion--at Roman Catholicism--was interpreted. Without historical context, the story loses some of its power. Another lens to read the story would be through race relations with the fear of robots running operations. Nonetheless, despite allusions, metaphor and theme, sometimes a robot is just a robot. It is often more useful to read at a literal level before advancing to other topics and heading off into misinterpretations.

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