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“Darcy’s Patent Automic Nanny” by Ted Chiang

A scientist is forced to reconsider the implications of his efforts to rehabilitate his father’s invention when its effects on his own son become clear.

Told in the form of a brief historical note on a museum exhibit, this story takes experiments like “the chicken wire mother” to their extreme, with some foreshadowing of our contemporary reliance on computers and television in child-rearing. Suggestive, but not heavy-handed.