Thank You, Death Robot — Mark R. Brand

If you run, it will catch you. If you hide, it will find you. If you resist, it will destroy you. A jaded ex-wife prepares a deadly surprise for her husband's new bride, a robotic executioner discovers there's more to lethal injection than just needles, an army of war machines not interested in polite conversation has humanity in its gun-sights, an aging actor treads the line between man and machine, and from beyond come the towering steel shadows of monsters that blot out the starlight. It is estimated that within our generation's lifetime a computer will be built that can exceed the raw computational power of the human mind. Shortly thereafter, a computer will be built that can "think" faster than the human race... From the earliest stories of Golems and clockwork men in the 19th century to Hollywood films full of steel-skinned mechanical killing machines, authors and filmmakers for the last two hundred years have given birth to an emerging archetype: a manifestation of industrial malevolence, a cautionary tale of technological hubris, and a call to reassert the tenuous hold modern man has over the machines that do his bidding. An enduring icon much beloved of science fiction fans everywhere, the Death Robot comes to life in this collection of stories by some of the brightest upcoming stars in speculative fiction.