discussion shows us a lot about Kevin’s character. He is smart for one thing, but he does not just spurt facts he learns from books. His mind works in such a way that he can make connections between facts and draw conclusions from them. Some of those connections and conclusions may seem a bit strange, but Kevin is quite satisfied with the way he thinks.

This is an especially interesting question because, in reality, King Arthur does not have much to do with robotics at all.  (In King Arthur’s time, robotics was not even a science yet.)  However, it is a testament to Kevin’s superior intelligence how he relates the two ideas. In fact, Kevin gets very excited when he talks about King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. They wear metal armor in order to protect themselves in battle and even make them “invincible” as they go out on “quests” to rescue “damsels in distress” and “to slay dragons and monsters.” Due to their armor, Kevin calls the knights the “first human version of robots.” Kevin actually gets mad at Max for suggesting that robots are not real. Kevin’s reply is as follows:

Robotics, the science of designing and building functional robots, is a huge industry.

This idea is important to the story for two reasons. First, it is what inspires both Kevin and Max to go on “quests” together. Most importantly, though, Kevin insists that a “robotic body” is being created in the “Medical Research Lab” for a transplant. Kevin asserts that it is this transplant that will cure his disability. The reader finds out at the end of the novel, however, that Kevin simply imagined this idea in order to deal with his severe condition.