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A 1950/60s story about time-traveling robots - please help identify


OK, I'm going to combine my hate of time-traveling robot questions with my distaste for story identification questions, and try to leverage all'y'all's wisdom to help me remember a story about time traveling robot.


Details I recall:




  • Short story.




  • A story involved a time-traveling robot (duh)





  • It was pretty old (before 1970)




  • The robot was somewhat confused by the time travels, and mistook the protagonist for an Ivan the Terrible (the Russian Tzar).




  • The robot somehow helped turn the protagonist into assorted historical figures (said Ivan the Terrible and if I recall correctly, a Neanderthal?)





  • I vaguely recall that the robot could drink some intoxicating (to him) electrical "drink".





Answer



OK, after much Googling, I figured it out myself.


The short story was The Ego Machine by Henry Kuttner.


Published in Space Science Fiction May 1952



When a slightly mad robot drunk on AC, wants you to join an experiment in optimum ecology—don't do it! After all, who wants to argue like Disraeli or live like Ivan the Terrible?




It's currently available on Project Gutenberg


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