in the 1950s robots lived mostly in our imagination

drawn in comic book panels with bold lines and certainty

machines with rivets and glass domes

built to obey without question

they were not thinkers back then

but extensions of the human hand

wired, tethered, directed

levers pulled from a porch

while fields answered in rows of metal motion

farmers guiding steel bodies through soil

as if driving tractors from a distance

the future looked mechanical,

gears turning, arms lifting,

funcioning by command, not curiosity

no quiet intelligence or learning

only execution

in kitchens and living rooms they swept, scrubbed and carried

moving through chores without pause or will

a promise that the ordinary weight of life could be handed off

everything under control

everything visible

a world where machines worked

and humans remained firmly in charge