Las tres leyes de la robótica

1- Un robot no puede hacer daño a un ser humano o, por inacción, permitir que un
ser humano sufra daño.
2- Un robot debe obedecer las órdenes dadas por los seres humanos, excepto si
estas órdenes entrasen en conflicto con la 1ª Ley.
3- Un robot debe proteger su propia existencia en la medida en que esta protección
no entre en conflicto con la 1ª o la 2ª Ley.1

Relatos
I Robbie

Calvin comienza el libro contando una anécdota de una niña que estaba
obsesionada con el robot que la cuidaba, una maquina capaz de interactuar con las
personas y con su entorno. A la madre, no le acaba de gustar que la niña esté a
todas horas con el robot y lo devuelve a la empresa que lo compraron.
Afortunadamente para la pequeña, su padre idea una estratagema para que Robbie
vuelva a casa.

II Sentido giratorio

En este relato, Susan nos presenta a Powell y Donovan, que son dos técnicos de U.
S. Robots. Corre el año 2051 y los dos trabajadores están en Mercurio testando un
robot que se le ha encomendado recoger selenio. El problema surge cuando
Speddy, que así es como se llama el robot, se vuelve medio loco ya que entra en
conflicto su misión con las tres leyes de la robótica. El caso es que Powell y
Donovan no pueden acercarse a el, para darle nuevas ordenes y que regrese a la
base, ya que la radiación se los llevaría por delante, y se las tienen que ingeniar
para que a Speddy se le pase la paranoia y regrese a la base.

III Razón

Ha pasado medio año y Donovan y Powell andan enfrascados en otra misión. Están
a bordo de una nave espacial y tienen que enseñar a Cutie, un robot cuyo cometido
tiene que ser hacerse cargo de pilotar y mantener la nave espacial en condiciones
óptimas. Cutie, es un prototipo tan avanzado de robot, que considera a los dos
humanos poco menos que seres inferiores, pero la sorpresa todavía será más
insólita cuando se autoproclame Profeta de robots. Tanto Donovan como Powell
intentan convencerlo de que solo es una máquina, pero el robot se niega a razonar
con ellos y consigue poner en nomina al resto de la tripulación que son también
robots, aunque inferiores a Cutie. Los dos trabajadores de la U.S Robots creen que
harán entrar en razón a Cutie, pero es imposible. De todas formas, el robot cumple
tan sobradamente la misión que le han encomendado con el cuidado de la nave,
que nuestros dos amigos no le dan mayor importancia y lo único que hacen es salir
pitando en cuanto llegan los dos relevos humanos que tienen que sustituirles.

IV Atrapa esa liebre

Seguimos con Donovan y Powell. Ahora están en un asteroide y tienen que vigilar el
comportamiento de Dave. Dave es un robot, que cuenta con seis robots auxiliares
para desempeñar sus funciones. Los sietes robots trabajan extrayendo mineral,
 pero surge un problema. Resulta que cuando no se les vigila, la producción es
practicamente cero. En cambio cuando Donovan y Powell se dejan ver, los robots
trabajan a destajo. El conflicto tiene que ver nuevamente con las tres leyes de la
robótica. Nuestro amigos resuelven el problema, al espiar a Dave sin que este se
de cuenta y descubren el porqué del comportamiento anómalo del robot.

V ¡Embustero!

En este relato la protagonista es Susan Calvin y dos de sus colabodarodes: Lanning

y Bogert. Herbie es un robot extraordinario pero en vez de disfrutar de lo lindo con
unos buenos tochos de matemáticas le va más ponerse a leer novelas. La
particularidad que tiene Herbie es que se ha tomado las tres leyes de la robótica a
rajatabla y va soltando mentiras piadosas a trote y moche para no herir a los
humanos. Lo malo es que Herbie no sabe todavía que se pilla antes a un mentiroso
que a un cojo y cuando lo descubran se va liar lo que no está escrito.

VI Pequeño robot perdido

Susan, Bogert y Lannig deben desenmascarar a un robot, que obedeciendo ordenes

de uno de sus superiores se ha mezclado con otros 62 robots idénticos a él. El caso
es que el superior tenia un mal día y le lanzo una serie de improperios a Nestor,
que así es como se llama el autómata, y le dio la orden de perderse. El robot se
tomó la orden y los insultos como algo personal, y tiene la feliz idea de mezclarse
con otros 62 hermanos para pasar desapercibido. Creen que van a descubrir
enseguida a Nestor, pero los científicos se las verán de todos los colores para
conseguirlo. Al final le preparan una trampa, lo pillan y le dan un buen rapapolvo.

VII Evasión

El principal competidor de U.S. Robots, Consolidated, le plantea un desafió a la

compañía. Su máquina más perfecta se ha fundido al no ser capaz de procesar
unos complejisimos datos, que lo que buscan es conseguir una máquina
interestelar. Toneladas de datos, cifras y complejas ecuaciones deben suministrarse
al Cerebro (que es la máquina más perfecta de la compañía) para que intente
fabricar la máquina. No solo el prestigio de U.S. Robots está en juego, también hay
mucho dinero de por medio en caso de que consigan dar con la tecla. Cuando el
Cerebro construye la nave interestelar, Donovan y Powell son enviados al espacio
sin previo aviso (estaban visitando la nave en ese momento) como conejillos de
indias. El Cerebro no lo ha consultado con nadie y la decisión ha sido
exclusivamente suya... En U.S. Robots todos andan con el alma en vilo, pues no
tienen claro que la misión sea un éxito, y temen que Donovan y Powell se
volatilizen en el espacio si algo falla.

VIII La evidencia

Aquí Susan cuenta la historia de Sthephen Byerly. Corre el año 2032, Sthephen es
un fiscal de distrito y en la próximas elecciones se presenta como candidato a la
Alcaldía (para ellos un alcalde era algo así como un presidente del gobierno). Byerly
es un hombre muy popular y la victoria la tiene poco menos que garantizada, pero
todo empieza a desmoronarse cuando desde la oposición empiezan a difundir el
rumor de que Sthephen Byerly es un robot. Para que lo entendáis , existía una
fuerte corriente anti-robots, en la tierra y era impensable, que de ser cierto un
robot fuera elegido alcalde. Si queréis saber lo que sucedió, no os va a quedar más
remedio que leer el relato, porque este es tan bueno que ya no voy a contaros nada
más.
1-ROBBIE
 It's 1998. Robbie is a simple robot—he can't even talk—but he sure seems to be a good
caretaker for little girl Gloria Weston. They play in a scene that sounds really ordinary:
Robbie (as the adult/babysitter) pretends to lose to Gloria; Gloria (as the child) wants a
ride, etc. In other words, this is totally normal babysitting/nannying. Except the
babysitter is a robot. (But all of our babysitters were robots, so that sounds totally
normal to us.)
 Gloria tells Robbie one of his favorite stories—"Cinderella"—but Gloria's mom interrupts
and tells Robbie to go away. (There's a wicked stepmother joke to be made here, but
we'll keep our mouths shut out of respect for all the non-wicked stepmothers out there.)
 Mrs. Weston wants to get rid of Robbie for a few reasons. Like, the robot might hurt her
little girl. And also, having a robot is no longer cool (75).
 But George Weston thinks her worries are silly. He points out that Robbie is safer than
any human thanks to the First Law of Robotics: "He just can't help being faithful and
loving and kind. He's a machine—made so. That's more than you can say for humans"
(76).
 Grace Weston is still worried—maybe Gloria won't be normal if she only plays with
robots, etc. (80). And after a systematic campaign of worrying about Robbie (say, from
paragraph 61 to around paragraph 95), Grace wears her husband down.
 So the parents get rid of Robbie when Gloria is out seeing a movie. (Well, a "visivox"—
which sounds like a futuristic way to say a movie.)
 Gloria is totally crushed by this and argues with her mom that Robbie "was a person
just like you and me and he was my friend" (119). (Kind of creepy that she says "was"
instead of "is"—as if Robbie is dead—but we'll let that pass. She's just a kid, after all.)
 The Westons try to distract Gloria from her crushing sadness, but it doesn't work. They
get her a dog, they take her to New York City for a vacation—nothing works. Gloria
sounds a little spoiled, if you ask us.
 In fact, in New York City, when the family is sight-seeing at the Museum of Science and
Industry, Gloria slips away and goes to see the Talking Robot exhibit. It's a giant, room-
filling computer that talks and answers math questions (169). (It probably looks like this
computer, which was built four years after this story)
 When Gloria asks the Talking Robot if it knows where Robbie is, the Talking Robot's
brain gets fried because it can't process the idea of other robots (184).
 (Which totally gives Susan Calvin an idea for a paper. See, she's been sitting in the
museum and she saw the whole thing. This is her only appearance in this story and she
doesn't even get a line. This part was totally added later, when Asimov put this story in
this book.)
 Grace Weston has no ideas on what to do about her daughter's crushing sadness, but
she still doesn't want to get Robbie back.
 But Dad George has one more idea to make Gloria realize that robots are just
machines: the whole family goes to the robot factory to see where robots are made.
 Unfortunately for that plan, Gloria sees Robbie at the factory and goes running to meet
him. And unfortunately for Gloria, a tractor in the factory almost crushes her. Luckily,
Robbie runs out and saves her, faster than any human could.
 So Grace gives in and Gloria gets Robbie back. And that's the end of the story.
 Back at the interview, Calvin sets up the next story: once US Robots and Mechanical
Men, Inc., developed talking robots that could move, people got scared and banned
robots from Earth. So US Robots made robots for space, including the Mercury mines.
 Of course, things didn't go so smoothly when US Robots tested their new robot there in
2015. Which leads us to our next story.
2-RUNAROUND
 It's 2015. Gregory Powell and Michael Donovan are on Mercury and they have a
problem: they sent out a robot named Speedy to get selenium from a pool and Speedy
hasn't come back yet. Which is odd, because he's quite speedy.
 In fact, Speedy is just circling and circling the pool of selenium (22), which is not only
odd, but potentially going to lead to Powell and Donovan dying. See, Powell and
Donovan need that selenium now in order to fix their "photo-cell banks"—and without
those photo-cell banks, their Mercury headquarters is just going to burn up (24).
 (Yay, it's time for an astronomy history lesson: up until 1962, we used to think
that Mercury was tidally locked—that is, we thought that one side of Mercury always
faced the sun. So we had this idea of Mercury having a sunny side and a dark side,
which is a pretty cool image, but not actually true. Still, when Asimov wrote this in the
1940s, that's what he thought, which is why Powell and Donovan need to worry about
burning up: their HQ is always in the light. Yay for astronomy history.)
 Powell and Donovan need to get Speedy back, but they can't do it themselves; their
inso-suits (insulation suits) will only keep them safe for 20 minutes in the sun (30).
 There are some 10-year old robots lying around from the first (failed) expedition to
Mercury. These robots are giant and more primitive than Speedy (for comparison,
check out the history of cellphones to see how we got from giant, diesel-operated
mobile communication to Angry Birds). But what's worse is that, because they were
built at a time when people were afraid of robot rebellion, these old robots will only
move if a human is riding them.
 (Powell uses the word "mahout" here, which refers to someone who rides an elephant.
Now that you know that word, you can use it in your everyday life.)
 So they can't go out to get Speedy, they can't send a robot, and they still don't know
what's wrong with him.
 Powell and Donovan use some tunnels (remember, this is supposed to be a mine) to
get closer to Speedy, who is still acting funny.
 (There's an awesome description here of what Mercury might be like, since everything
is brighter and darker without atmosphere. Well, as Powell explains, Mercury has a tiny,
poisonous atmosphere (86). Notice how Asimov likes to sneak science into his stories?)
 The robot SPD 13, who they call Speedy, is acting drunk: he's wobbling around, going
in a circle, and singing Gilbert and Sullivan, which no robot does when sober. In fact, no
one does that when they're sober.
 Then Powell and Donovan work out what's going on by thinking about the Three Laws
of Robotics:
 "One, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being
to come to harm.
 "Two… a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
 "And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the First or Second Laws" (138, 140, 142).
 So here's the answer to the mystery: Speedy is acting drunk because he can't figure out
which law to follow. Speedy is an expensive robot, so the Third Law was
strengthened—and there's some dangerous gas near the selenium pool. And when
Speedy was ordered to get selenium, the order was casual. So Speedy is caught
between a weak Second Law (his order) and a strong Third Law (his self-preservation).
So Speedy can't go forward to get the selenium (Third Law) and he can't go away
because he was ordered to get the selenium (Second Law)—so he just goes around
and around in a circle.
 Powell and Donovan try to use a chemical danger to force Speedy to come to them, but
that doesn't work because the weak Second Law and the strong Third Law are still in
conflict (198-9).
 Powell realizes that the only answer is to bring the First Law into play: a human has to
be in danger to snap Speedy out of his drunken stupor.
 So Powell runs out into the sun and tries to get Speedy's attention. Like "hey, I'm going
to die unless you stop singing Gilbert and Sullivan!" Which sounds like a typical
Thanksgiving to us—please, parents, stop singing.
  One of the older robots almost ruins the plan by trying to save Powell before Speedy
can do it, but Speedy saves Powell just in time (228).
 And everyone gets a happy ending: Powell recovers, Speedy gets the selenium from
another pool, and Powell and Donovan start planning their next mission—a cool space
station will be a nice change after almost burning up on Mercury.

3-REASON

 Half a year later, Powell and Donovan are still working with robots, still trying to figure
out how positronic brains go wrong, even when "the slide-rule geniuses" say that the
robots can't go wrong (Reason.1). (Maybe the problem is that they're using slide-rules.
Man, science fiction writers in the 1940s loved their slide-rules.)
 This time, they're on Solar Station #5, which absorbs sunlight and converts it into
energy. This energy is then shot in a beam down to Earth and the other human colonies
in the solar system.
 They're dealing with a new QT model robot, which is supposed to manage the space
station.
 The only problem is that Cutie doesn't quite believe what Powell and Donovan tell it; the
story that Powell and Donovan told it about Earth and humans and robots doesn't quite
make sense to it (11).
 Cutie isn't convinced when Powell explains that they built him to run the space station
because it's too dangerous for humans (23). Cutie goes off to think it over for himself.
 Two days later, Cutie comes back to discuss what he has reasoned out:
 First, Cutie knows it exists, because it thinks. (This is Descartes's first philosophical
move, as Powell notices.)
 Second, robots are awesome and humans aren't, so humans couldn't have built robots.
How could weak humans build awesome robots? It doesn't make any sense to Cutie
(56-7).
 Third, everyone in the space station is focused on the Energy Converter, so that must
be God. Cutie calls it "the Master" (63). Which is slightly problematic because humans
are supposed to be the masters.
 Sure enough, Cutie spreads his new religion/philosophy to the other robots and they
stop taking orders from people.
 This seems especially problematic because there's an electron storm coming that will
screw up the energy beam to Earth. Basically, if no one is at the controls, the energy
beam will destroy large sections of the Earth's surface. (Boy, if they spent so much time
thinking about how to engineer safe robots, maybe they should've spent some time
thinking about how to engineer safe energy beams.)
 Because hot-headed Donovan spits on the Energy Converter, the humans are kept
away from the controls.
 They try to convince Cutie by building a robot in front of him. And they succeed in
making a living (well, not living living) robot. But Cutie reasons that the parts of the robot
came from somewhere else, so they didn't really make the robot.
 So Cutie keeps the humans away from the controls during the electron storm. Powell
and Donovan think that the beam has destroyed large parts of the earth (192).
 But then Cutie comes and shows them the read-outs from that day, and it has done a
very good job of keeping the beam in focus. Of course, Cutie doesn't think in those
terms—he merely "kept all dials at equilibrium in accordance with the will of the Master"
(211).
 So Cutie can run the station successfully, even though he doesn't believe in Earth, says
Powell (222).
 And so Powell and Donovan can go home. Or at least, they can go test a new robot, a
multiple robot.
4-CATCH THAT RABBIT

 Half a year after "Reason," Powell and Donovan are still on the job, this time testing out
a multiple robot for asteroid mining. The multiple robot is made up of a supervisor robot
named DV-5 (or Dave) and six worker robots who are like Dave's hands or fingers. In
other words, Dave tells the fingers what to do (though a "positronic field" (11)) and they
do the real work—like a regular human office.
 Dave's operation isn't supposed to need human supervision (2). Except when no
humans are around to watch, he doesn't work right (6).
 Dave doesn't know why he goes haywire occasionally, and he's upset by it. Which is
definitely one of those moments where you might go, "wait, how human are these
robots? Because when my stapler jams, it doesn't feel bad about it." (Actually, your
stapler does feel terrible about jamming and you should be nicer to it.)
 Powell and Donovan run Dave through some tests—the usual math and ethics
problems—and he seems to be fine (43). (Check how Asimov works up from math
problems and reflex tests to testing Dave's moral reasoning. We love it because he
works up to something that seems ridiculous in other science fiction works—robots
don't understand morals!—but because he worked up to it, it seems reasonable here.)
 Donovan thinks Dave might be planning a robot rebellion. Powell thinks Donovan is an
idiot who reads too many stupid adventure novels (50). (Powell and Donovan are old
partners, and they fight playfully.)
 They set up some security cameras to see when Dave goes haywire. They want to find
out what he's doing and when he's doing it.
 What he's doing: it turns out that Dave and the robots are mostly marching or dancing
around (68).
 When he's doing it: when there's a cave-in or other type of emergency.
 Powell and Donovan interview one of the worker robots, one of Dave's "fingers." But
fingers don't know a lot, so that doesn't help much.
 So Powell and Donovan decide to go cause a cave-in in order to see what Dave does
(which shows that they might be as smart as your average finger).
 Of course, they get caught in the cave-in. And they're running out of oxygen in their
space suits (because, remember, this is all happening on an asteroid). And Dave has
gone haywire, of course (218).
 Luckily there's a small hole between where the humans are trapped and where the
robots are dancing. So Powell does what anyone would do in that situation: he shoots
one of the worker robots.
 That snaps Dave out of the trance and he saves them.
 Powell explains to Donovan that Dave was going haywire when he had to control all six
worker robots at once (265). Like, during an emergency. It would be like walking,
chewing gum, counting to ten, reading this guide, and doing two other things at the
same time.
 And when Dave was overloaded by trying to control all six worker robots—his fingers—
then they would start to dance or march because that was Dave's version of "twiddling
his fingers" (273).
 With that terrible joke, the story is over.
 And we're back with Susan Calvin and the interviewer. The interviewer notes that Calvin
warms up when the subject is robots (274). So he asks her to tell him about an
experience she had with robots.
 So she starts to tell him the story of Herbie, the mind-reading robot.
5-LIAR!
 It's 2021. The executives at US Robot (including Calvin) have a mystery: one of the RB
robots can read minds because something went wrong when he was manufactured.
And they want to find out what it was.
 Cute, boyish Milton Ashe tells how RB-34 read his mind, which scared him.
 Less-cute, less-boyish Calvin notes that it would be scary to have one's mind read since
we always think of our thoughts as private (19). Which is like a giant neon sign telling us
that Calvin has some private thoughts.
 Director of Research Alfred Lanning (old, not so cute) and mathematician Peter Bogert
(younger, not cute at all) go work on the math behind this problem, while Ashe goes to
inspect the production line.
 Meanwhile, Calvin talks to Herbie, the mind-reading robot.
 Like us, he's interested in literature and not so interested in science. Also, like us, he's
brilliant at science and math (39-42).
 Calvin, who is usually very smart, realizes that Herbie knows her secret. Neither of them
quite say what that secret is yet. (We're keeping our fingers crossed that it's really
horrible, like she went on a murderous rampage as a child or is a fan of Nickelback.)
 Calvin notes that she's not young or pretty. But Herbie tells her that there's reason for
hope that the guy of her dreams is interested in her—that Milton Ashe (gasp!) loves her
for her mind (65, 67).
 Calvin is skeptical because Ashe was hanging around with some cute girl the other day.
But Herbie says that was just his cousin. Calvin is relieved and notes that she thought
that all along (78). Which is kind of a hilarious thing to say to a mind-reading robot—
because if she thought it, he knew that she thought it.
 Later, Ashe notes to Bogert that Calvin seems different—she's wearing makeup and
she seems happy (99-100). A woman who seems happy? Someone call the police!
 Ashe also tells Bogert that Herbie is supposed to be a math whiz. And since Bogert and
Lanning are fighting over math, Bogert goes to ask Herbie.
 Herbie tells Bogert two things: a) you're much better at math than I am; and b) Lanning
is retiring and naming you his successor (128).
 And that, naturally, leads to a fight between Bogert and Lanning. Lanning says he's not
retiring and that Herbie agrees with him on the math. Bogert says Lanning is retiring
and that Herbie agrees with him on the math. So they decide to go speak to Herbie.
 Around the time that Bogert and Lanning are fighting about—yawn—math, Calvin learns
that Ashe is going to marry someone else, the cute girl that he came in with the other
day. (The one that Herbie said was his cousin. Whoops.)
 Calvin is really upset and goes to see Herbie.
 So now Calvin, Bogert, and Lanning are trying to talk to Herbie, and Herbie is not
answering. Calvin is the first person who realizes what's going on and explains to the
others:
 Herbie has to follow the First Law, which says that a robot can't harm a person. But
Herbie can read minds, so he understands "harm" to include harming feelings (222-4).
So he's been telling everyone what they want to hear because he doesn't want to harm
anyone's feelings.
 Now here's the kicker: Herbie knows why he's telepathic; Bogert and Lanning want to
know why he's telepathic; but Bogert and Lanning also want to figure it out for
themselves. So Herbie is stuck and… well, let's let Calvin explain it:
 "You can't tell them… because that would hurt and you mustn't hurt. But if you don't tell
them, you hurt, so you must tell them. And if you do, you will hurt and you mustn't, so
you can't tell them; but if you don't, you hurt, so you must; but if you do, you hurt, so you
mustn't; but if you don't, you hurt, so you must; but if you do, you—" (258).
 And that's when Herbie goes irretrievably insane.
 Bogert and Lanning are a little horrified by what Calvin just did. Honestly, we're a little
horrified, too.
 But she thinks Herbie "deserved it" (267) because he's a liar. (We're still horrified.)
 Which is the title of this story and also the end of the story.
  The interviewer realizes that he's not going to get anything more out of Calvin after she
told him that story. So he leaves and comes back for more interviews two days later
(272).

6-LITTLE LOST ROBOT

 The interviewer points out that Calvin's stories are great, but maybe she could tell a
story about something that actually affects people's lives today. Like the invention of the
hyperatomic motor, since it was robots that invented it.
 So she tells him about a little lost robot, which happens to be the title of this story.
 It's 2029. Calvin and Bogert arrive at the government's Hyper Base research station in
space. They are met by Major-General Kallner, commander of Hyper Base and the
leader of the Hyperatomic drive project. (There's not much of a description here, but we
imagine Kallner as looking something like Leslie Groves, the military commander of the
Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bomb.)
 Kallner explains why he had Calvin and Bogert brought there: one of their special NS-2
robots has gone missing and is hiding himself in a cargo ship with 62 other NS-2 robots
that look identical—but aren't. And he wants Calvin and Bogert to find the missing robot.
 In order to find the missing robot, he has to tell Calvin what makes their NS-2 robots
special. The answer: their NS-2s don't have the whole First Law imprinted in their brains
(34).
 See, the First Law states, "No robot may harm a human being, or through inaction,
allow a human being to come to harm" (46). But at Hyper Base, some scientists had to
work in radiation to get their work done. And the regular robots kept interrupting their
research (and sometimes dying) because any time a regular robot saw a scientist in a
radiation field, that robot would have to act—it couldn't let a human be harmed by its
inaction.
 So, the government ordered NS-2s that lacked the second part: these robots could let a
human be hurt through inaction. Problem solved.
 Except, of course, the government and US Robots had to keep this super secret
because people on Earth would flip out if they learned about robots without the First
Law. And the government (and US Robots) can't let this one special robot get out.
 Calvin has a simple solution: destroy all 63 robots on the cargo ship. She's really not
thrilled about the idea of robots without the First Law, pointing out to Bogert that
modifying the first law would make the positronic brain unstable. She thinks that
modified First Law robots might learn to kill people.
 But Bogert and Kallner would rather they try to find the missing robot before destroying
all of them. Bogert also accuses Calvin of having a Frankenstein complex (66).
 (Unlike Powell and Donovan, who fight playfully and seem to like each other, Calvin and
Bogert fight for real. So, aren't we all glad that this is the team working to prevent a
robot rebellion?)
 The next day, Calvin and Bogert talk to Gerald Black, a physicist who was the last
person to see Nestor-10, the missing robot.
 It turns out that the Nestor robots can be very annoying to the scientists. So Black lost
his temper with Nestor-10 and told it to "Go lose yourself" (91)—except with a few more
curses and swear-words. So that's what Nestor-10 is trying to do: to keep himself lost.
Get it? Nestor-10 was given an "order" to lose himself and it was a very strong order
(what with all those curses).
 Calvin and Bogert start interviewing and testing the 63 Nestors on the cargo ship,
though they can't find any differences.
 Calvin is worried that a Nestor with a modified First Law might resent being dominated
by humans, who are inferior to robots. And maybe, with an unstable positronic brain,
Nestor-10 might lose the rest of the First Law (122). Then we'd finally have that robot
rebellion we've been waiting for.
 (There's a little interlude here where Black talks to a workman named Walensky who is
working on the stage for the robot tests. But Walensky doesn't really understand what's
going on and isn't getting the whole truth. Since this story deals with superiority and
 inferiority, it might be interesting to look at what sort of relations the people have with
each other.)
 Here's the first test Calvin comes up with: the robots see a person who is about to be
crushed by a weight. The 62 robots who have the full First Law have to act to save the
person. (At the last second, the weight is diverted, so the person was never really in
danger.)
 But when they run the test, all 63 robots act the same. Although Nestor-10 doesn't have
to save the person (the other 62 have to because of the First Law), he chooses to
anyway.
 Here's the second test Calvin comes up with: it's the same as the first, but there are
(fake) electrified cables between the robots and the person. Because the First Law
(save humans) is more powerful than the Third (save yourself), the unmodified Nestors
should leap to save the person, even if it means their death. The modified Nestor,
however, lacks the "save humans" command, so he should be ruled by the Third Law
and stay seated (179).
 But when they run the test, all of the robots stay seated. When Calvin interviews them
after the test, it turns out that they talked before the test; and one of the Nestors pointed
out that they couldn't save the human and if they stayed seated, they might save a
human some time in the future (203, 210).
 Calvin, Bogert, and Kallner fight a bunch: Calvin wants all the robots destroyed or she'll
take this to the public, Kallner threatens to imprison Calvin, Bogert… well, for once,
Bogert keeps his cool. (Which, if you remember "Liar!," is something that Bogert doesn't
always do.)
 But then Calvin comes up with a third test since Nestor-10 was taught some physics at
Hyper Base. The other Nestors don't yet know anything about physics because they're
produced without that knowledge.
 Here's the third test: it's the same as the second, but instead of electrified cables, Calvin
tells the Nestors that there will be a dangerous gamma ray field between the robot and
the endangered human. Also, the robots don't get a chance to talk together before the
test. (Darn gossipy robots.)
 One more change: Calvin will pretend to be in danger so she can keep a close watch on
the robots she most suspects. Which is a great plan: Hey, I think one of those robots
might be crazy—let me get closer to him!
 When they run the test, only one robot jumps up to save her and they've got Nestor-10.
(We'll tell you how after these messages from our sponsors.)
 Nestor-10 tries to attack Calvin because she found him and he's trying to stay lost. But
the First Law still holds and he can't really bring himself to attack her. But still, Gerald
Black panics and uses gamma radiation to kill Nestor-10.
 Before going home, Calvin explains to Kallner how she caught Nestor-10: although the
humans told the Nestors that there would be deadly gamma radiation, there was only
harmless infrared radiation. But only Nestor-10 knew enough about physics to tell the
difference between the two. And, on top of that, Nestor-10 thought people were dumb
and couldn't tell the difference between gamma radiation and infrared radiation. So
Nestor-10 was caught because of his own superiority complex (333). Oh, the irony—it
stings.
 Oh, and Kallner agrees to destroy all of the special Nestors.
7-ESCAPE
 Sometime after Calvin and Bogert get back from Hyper Base, the executives at US
Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., face another problem having to do with the
hyperatomic drive.
 Their competitor Consolidated wants to hire them and use their super-computer to run
some data on the hyperatomic drive and will pay US Robots even if they can't come up
with an answer. Why would Consolidated do that when they have their own super-
computer?
 The hot gossip on that is that their super-computer broke trying to deal with this data.
So it seems like Consolidated is trying to destroy US Robots's super-computer.
 That is, maybe the data contains the kind of dilemma that Calvin used to destroy Herbie
in "Liar!" Or maybe the solution for building a hyperatomic drive involves breaking the
First Law (22).
 Even though she kind of drove Herbie insane, we trust Calvin when she explains that a
robot brain would look for an escape just like a human would when faced with a
dilemma. Unfortunately, the common escapes for humans are things like delusion or
alcoholism (26). (We have no idea what the equivalent of alcoholism would be for a
robot. Although maybe it would involve singing Gilbert and Sullivan, like Speedy in
"Runaround.")
 But US Robots's super-computer has a personality, unlike the non-positronic super-
computers used by Consolidated. So Calvin comes up with a plan to feed the data to
their super-computer in small chunks, hoping that his personality would allow him to
hesitate before frying his brain or becoming an alcoholic.
 If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, because Calvin admits that it doesn't
make much sense when you put it into words. But the math holds up (34).
 Calvin goes off to talk to their super-computer, which is a large positronic brain named
"the Brain." She tells Brain the situation, and tells it not to get excited about human
death because "we don't mind at all" if we die (48).
 But instead of kicking out a "does not compute" answer when he looks at the data,
Brain says that he can build a spaceship with a hyperatomic drive. So he does, though
Calvin is a little nervous (which is her natural state, it seems).
 Director of Research Alfred Lanning calls in Powell and Donovan to test out the
spaceship.
 Powell and Donovan look over the ship. And they notice that it has no controls and
doesn't seem to have an engine (109-110). So maybe Brain is broken?
 But they can't get out of the ship—it's locked (115). And when they look outside, they
notice they're in space. Whoops.
 Back on Earth, Calvin is asking Brain about the whole "kidnapped test pilots" thing.
Brain tells her that they are safe and should have an "interesting" time (146).
("Interesting" is one of those words people use to avoid scaring people or hurting their
feelings. If your teacher tells you your paper was "interesting," ask them what they really
thought.)
 There are some weird things about the spaceship. For instance, they have a radio to
contact Earth, but it's only one way. So Powell and Donovan can hear people trying to
contact them, but they can't talk back. (It's like Asimov knew what cellphone
conversations would be like: "Hello, can you hear me? We're lost in space. Oh, we're
going through a tunnel now.")
 Also, Powell and Donovan find food, but it's all baked beans and milk.
 Mathematician Peter Bogert does some math (insert cool math special effects if this
were a movie) and finds out that life cannot exist within a space warp. Which is such old
news.
 Back on the ship, Powell and Donovan pass out or die or start dreaming. In any case,
they have a weird experience. Like Powell hears a commercial for a coffin and then has
a short experience of Hell, although this version of Hell involves an announcer
announcing "See if you are at the proper entrance gate. There will be plenty of fire for
all" (268).
  And then they wake up or come back to life or something. They compare their different
experiences and they realize that they have just died temporarily. Also, they are far, far,
far out in space.
 Calvin realizes what's going on when the Brain doesn't want to talk about how people
will experience the space warp.
 After Powell and Donovan come back, Calvin explains it all:
 Since Calvin told Brain that people don't mind being dead, Brain figured out that the
hyperdrive would kill people—but only for a short time (319). So he could build the
hyperdrive and it would hurt people only temporarily.
 However, that's still slightly against the First Law, so Brain developed a coping
mechanism. But instead of escaping into alcoholism or madness, Brain became a
practical joker (322). So, the lack of controls, the beans and milk, and even the
experience of death—those were all jokes. Terrible, terrible, jokes.
 Then everyone at US Robots decides to play the same trick on Consolidated.

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