XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: michael.stemper@gmail.com   
      
   > In    
   > J. Clarke  writes:   
   >   
   >> The thing is, I was wondering if it had been used anywhere in the   
   >> context of humans giving orders to robots or AIs _before_ "Freefall".   
      
   I just came across the term "direct order" in Vonnegut's _The   
   Sirens of Titan_ (1959), but it's a Martian giving an order   
   to a human conscripted into the Martian army.   
      
   So it's an older use of the term, and in SF.   
      
   Oh, and the human has just come out of a mind-wipe treatment,   
   so he's almost a robot. And the order is to strangle his best   
   friend. (Shades of _The Manchurian Candidate_!)   
      
      
   --   
   Michael F. Stemper   
   A preposition is something you should never end a sentence with.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)