Feb. 12th, 2009

sergebroom: (Rocketeer)
In 2005, Paul McAuley and Kim Newman opened the Hugo Ceremonies with a speech on the life of science-fiction's pioneer after whom the Award is named - Victor Hugo.

...his was the guiding hand behind Jules Verne's famous Three Laws of Automata: a homunculus, automaton or other artificial being shall not serve a human red wine with fish, must always alert a human to shortfallings in the quality of his cuisine with a mechanical cry of 'sacré bleu', and shall not (through inaction) allow a human to be seen in public with mismatching gaiters and cravatte.


The complete speech can be found here on Kim Newman's site.