Just remember that Porvus has no idea what is really happening. He's speculating off the facts he has (scant few), and is bedeviled by the man he knows Lodda to be. It's his longtime distrust of his own partner that is pushing him to act now. But, is he even right?
I think I remember it as being 1997 in the show. I recall seeing that show in reruns when I was 10 in 1977, and thinking, "Wow. That's only 20 years away!"
But the vacuum cleaner was made in 1965.
That's Robby, not the Robinson's B-9 (although both robots were created by Bob Kinoshita).
Robby is more likely to say, "There would seem to be some danger afoot, sir. Would you care for a glass of wine to calm your nerves?"
The closeness of this group of people is part of the strength of this story. As such a strength would be needed, for survival, were the events of this tale real.
I originally imagined the basics of this story and wrote them down when I was 16. It took all these years to finally get this version of the world-that-could-have-been into print.