I loved this story (very wry), but not enough to overcome my innate pedantry...
> As part of a 20 minute show, R781 clothes itself as it was at the time of its adventure with the baby and answers the visitors' questions
If not saving a life, would not any command to imitate a human be insufficient to overcome the prohibition against this? To do so just for the sake of a show is a weaker reason than those given in the text.
> Mothers sometimes like to have their pictures taken standing next to R781 with R781 holding their baby. After many requests, R781 was told to patch its program to allow this.
This suggests, to me at least, that there may have been other patches over the years. Certainly, nothing in the story precludes this.
> As part of a 20 minute show, R781 clothes itself as it was at the time of its adventure with the baby and answers the visitors' questions
If not saving a life, would not any command to imitate a human be insufficient to overcome the prohibition against this? To do so just for the sake of a show is a weaker reason than those given in the text.