guy (02/27/83)
The story about the robot with the population of earth stored in its finger was (assuming I remember this all correctly from the time I saw it) "Demon with a Glass Hand", by Harlan Ellison (which means it probably wasn't a book, since Ellison wrote only two novels and utterly disavows both of them - he, and most other people, think they were lousy). It was made into an Outer Limits episode, not a movie. The "glass hand" refers to the missing finger (which contained the entire population of earth recorded in it), which was made of clear plastic (or some such clear substance). I don't remember whether the sun was about to go nova; the reason he was created and the population of earth stored in his finger was that an alien race called the Kyben (which, I now remember, was the name of an alien race that appeared in some of Ellison's early stories, so the story was definitely by Ellison) was trying to conquer/ destroy/etc. the earth; the plan was to hide out in the robot's finger and somehow bring everybody out again when the robot is destroyed. The heart of the story was the relationship between the robot and a woman who befriended him; unfortunately, I can't remember the ending - the robot made some big decision, probably involving staying with her or going ahead in time or whatever and reviving the human race. It was extremely good; I saw it at an SF convention. Guy Harris RLG Corporation ...!decvax!mcnc!rlgvax!guy ...!seismo!rlgvax!guy