As a joke, I bought a book called The Complete Roderick by John Sladek (1980,1983). While I usually don't read too much fiction, I decided I would veg out and read this book. The premise or plotline is of a robot that evolves. As you may have guessed, the robot's name is Roderick. He starts out as little more than a box on wheels, developed in a lab. When a government agency seeks to shut down all work on entities (artificial beings), Roderick is hidden away with an odd couple; Hank and Indica. Hank is a failed inventor and Indica is a bored-cheating housewife that will eventually become an activist of sorts. From here, Roderick is passed from person to person; where each influence and experience develops him. Perhaps the most influential time was spent with Mr. and Mrs. Wood. Mr. Wood worked in a factory that made automatons and used his skill to improve the little robot into a "boy".
Most of the book relates how Roderick is perceived by humans; not as a robot but as a fellow human. No one seems to believe Roderick is a robot; not even his school teachers even though he tells them constantly. The humans are depicted as mostly irrational if not crazed, but of course Sladek (who died in 2000) may have been trying to capture how irrational the actions of humans might appear to a robot.
