RC3 - Cyborg, Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3 - William F Wu

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3: Cyborg

ISAAC ASIMOV'S

ROBOT

CITY

BOOK 3: CYBORG

WILLIAM F. WU

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks for help in writing this novel are due to David M. Harris, Michael P. Kube-

McDowell, Rob Chilson, Alison Telure, my parents, Dr. William Q. Wu and Cecile F. Wu, and

Plus Five Computer Services, Inc.

This novel is dedicated to

Laura J. Lehew

who always remains very special

CYBERNETIC ORGANISM

ISAAC ASIMOV

A robot is a robot and an organism is an organism.

An organism, as we all know, is built up of cells. From the molecular standpoint, its key

molecules are nucleic acids and proteins. These float in a watery medium, and the whole has a

bony support system. It is useless to go on with the description, since we are all familiar with

organisms and since we are examples of them ourselves.

A robot, on the other hand, is (as usually pictured in science fiction) an object, more or less

resembling a human being, constructed out of strong, rust-resistant metal. Science fiction writers

are generally chary of describing the robotic details too closely since they are not usually

essential to the story and the writers are generally at a loss how to do so.

The impression one gets from the stories, however, is that a robot is wired, so that it has wires

through which electricity flows rather than tubes through which blood flows. The ultimate source

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3: Cyborg

of power is either unnamed, or is assumed to partake of the nature of nuclear power.

What of the robotic brain?

When I wrote my first few robot stories in 1939 and 1940, I imagined a “positronic brain” of a

spongy type of platinum-iridium alloy. It was platinum-iridium because that is a particularly inert

metal and is least likely to undergo chemical changes. It was spongy so that it would offer an

enormous surface on which electrical patterns could be formed and un-formed. It was

“positronic” because four years before my first robot story, the positron had been discovered as a

reverse kind of electron, so that “positronic” in place of “electronic” had a delightful science-

fiction sound.

Nowadays, of course, my positronic platinum-iridium brain is hopelessly archaic. Even ten years

after its invention it became outmoded. By the end of the 1940s, we came to realize that a robot's

brain must be a kind of computer. Indeed, if a robot were to be as complex as the robots in my

most recent novels, the robot brain-computer must be every bit as complex as the human brain. It

must be made of tiny microchips no larger than, and as complex as, brain cells.

But now let us try to imagine something that is neither organism nor robot, but a combination of

the two. Perhaps we can think of it as an organism—robot or “orbot.” That would clearly be a

poor name, for it is only “robot” with the first two letters transposed. To say “orgabot”, instead, is

to be stuck with a rather ugly word.

We might call it a robot-organism, or a “robotanism”, which, again, is ugly, or “roborg”. To my

ears, “roborg” doesn't sound bad, but we can't have that. Something else has arisen.

The science of computers was given the name “cybernetics” by Norbert Weiner a generation ago,

so that if we consider something that is part robot and part organism and remember that a robot is

cybernetic in nature, we might think of the mixture as a “cybernetic organism”, or a “cyborg”. In

fact, that is the name that has stuck and is used.

To see what a cyborg might be, let's try starting with a human organism and moving toward a

robot; and when we are quite done with that, let's start with a robot and move toward a human

being.

To move from a human organism toward a robot, we must begin replacing portions of the human

organism with robotic parts. We already do that in some ways. For instance, a good percentage of

the original material of my teeth is now metallic, and metal is, of course, the robotic substance

par excellence .

The replacements don't have to be metallic, of course. Some parts of my teeth are now ceramic in

nature, and can't be told at a glance from the natural dentine. Still, even though dentine is ceramic

in appearance and even, to an extent, in chemical structure, it was originally laid down by living

material and bears the marks of its origin. The ceramic that has replaced the dentine shows no

trace of life, now or ever.

We can go further. My breastbone, which had to be split longitudinally in an operation a few

years back, was for a time held together by metallic staples, which have remained in place ever

since. My sister-in-law has an artificial hip-joint replacement. There are people who have

artificial arms or legs and such non-living limbs are being designed, as time passes on, to be ever

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3: Cyborg

more complex and useful. There are people who have lived for days and even months with

artificial hearts, and many more people who live for years with pacemakers.

We can imagine, little by little, this part and that part of the human being replaced by inorganic

materials and engineering devices. Is there any part which we would find difficult to replace,

even in imagination?

I don't think anyone would hesitate there. Replace every part of the human being but one—the

limbs, the heart, the liver, the skeleton, and so on—and the product would remain human. It

would be a human being with artificial parts, but it would be a human being.

But what about the brain?

Surely, if there is one thing that makes us human it is the brain. If there is one thing that makes us

a human individual, it is the intensely complex makeup, the emotions, the learning, the memory

content of our particular brain. You can't simply replace a brain with a thinking device off some

factory shelf. You have to put in something that incorporates all that a natural brain has learned,

that possesses all its memory, and that mimics its exact pattern of working.

An artificial limb might not work exactly like a natural one, but might still serve the purpose. The

same might be true of an artificial lung, kidney, or liver. An artificial brain, however, must be the

precise replica of the brain it replaces, or the human being in question is no longer the same

human being.

It is the brain, then, that is the sticking point in going from human organism to robot.

And the reverse?

In my story “The Bicentennial Man”, I described the passage of my robot-hero, Andrew Martin,

from robot to man. Little by little, he had himself changed, till his every visible part was human

in appearance. He displayed an intelligence that was increasingly equivalent (or even superior) to

that of a man. He was an artist, a historian, a scientist, an administrator. He forced the passage of

laws guaranteeing robotic rights, and achieved respect and admiration in the fullest degree.

Yet at no point could he make himself accepted as a man. The sticking point, here, too, was his

robotic brain. He found that he had to deal with that before the final hurdle could be overcome.

Therefore, we come down to the dichotomy, body and brain. The ultimate cyborgs are those in

which the body and brain don't match. That means we can have two classes of complete cyborgs:

a) a robotic brain in a human body, or

b) a human brain in a robotic body.

We can take it for granted that in estimating the worth of a human being (or a robot, for that

matter) we judge first by superficial appearance.

I can very easily imagine a man seeing a woman of superlative beauty and gazing in awe and

wonder at the sight. “What a beautiful woman,” he will say, or think, and he could easily imagine

himself in love with her on the spot. In romances, I believe that happens as a matter of routine.

And, of course, a woman seeing a man of superlative beauty is surely likely to react in precisely

the same way.

If you fall in love with a striking beauty, you are scarcely likely to spend much time asking if she

(or he, of course) has any brains, or possesses a good character, or has good judgment or kindness

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3: Cyborg

or warmth. If you find out eventually that good looks are the person's only redeeming quality,

you are liable to make excuses and continue to be guided, for a time at least, by the conditioned

reflex of erotic response. Eventually, of course, you will tire of good looks without content, but

who knows how long that will take?

On the other hand, a person with a large number of good qualities who happened to be distinctly

plain might not be likely to entangle you in the first place unless you were intelligent enough to

see those good qualities so that you might settle down to a lifetime of happiness.

What I am saying, then, is that a cyborg with a robotic brain in a human body is going to be

accepted by most, if not all, people as a human being; while a cyborg with a human brain in a

robotic body is going to be accepted by most, if not all, people as a robot. You are, after all—at

least to most people—what you seem to be.

These two diametrically opposed cyborgs will not, however, pose a problem to human beings to

the same degree.

Consider the robotic brain in the human body and ask why the transfer should be made. A robotic

brain is better off in a robotic body since a human body is far the more fragile of the two. You

might have a young and stalwart human body in which the brain has been damaged by trauma

and disease, and you might think, “Why waste that magnificent human body? Let's put a robotic

brain in it so that it can live out its life.”

If you were to do that, the human being that resulted would not be the original. It would be a

different individual human being. You would not be conserving an individual but merely a

specific mindless body. And a human body, however fine, is (without the brain that goes with it)

a cheap thing. Every day, half a million new bodies come into being. There is no need to save

anyone of them if the brain is done.

On the other hand, what about a human brain in a robotic body? A human brain doesn't last

forever, but it can last up to ninety years without falling into total uselessness. It is not at all

unknown to have a ninety-year-old who is still sharp, and capable of rational and worthwhile

thought. And yet we also know that many a superlative mind has vanished after twenty or thirty

years because the body that housed it (and was worthless in the absence of the mind) had become

uninhabitable through trauma or disease. There would be a strong impulse then to transfer a

perfectly good (even superior) brain into a robotic body to give it additional decades of useful

life.

Thus, when we say “cyborg” we are very likely to think, just about exclusively, of a human brain

in a robotic body—and we are going to think of that as a robot.

We might argue that a human mind is a human mind, and that it is the mind that counts and not

the surrounding support mechanism, and we would be right. I'm sure that any rational court

would decide that a human-brain cyborg would have all the legal rights of a man. He could vote,

he could be enslaved, and so on.

And yet suppose a cyborg were challenged: “Prove that you have a human brain and not a robotic

brain, before I let you have human rights.”

The easiest way for a cyborg to offer the proof is for him to demonstrate that he is not bound by

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Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3: Cyborg

the Three Laws of Robotics. Since the Three Laws enforce socially acceptable behavior, this

means he must demonstrate that he is capable of human (i.e. nasty) behavior. The simplest and

most unanswerable argument is simply to knock the challenger down, breaking his jaw in the

process, since no robot could do that. (In fact, in my story “Evidence”, which appeared in 1947, I

use this as a way of proving someone is not a robot—but in that case there was a catch.)

But if a cyborg must continually offer violence in order to prove he has a human brain, that will

not necessarily win him friends.

For that matter, even if he is accepted as human and allowed to vote and to rent hotel rooms and

do all the other things human beings can do, there must nevertheless be some regulations that

distinguish between him and complete human beings. The cyborg would be stronger than a man,

and his metallic fists could be viewed as lethal weapons. He might still be forbidden to strike a

human being, even in self-defense. He couldn't engage in various sports on an equal basis with

human beings, and so on.

Ah, but need a human brain be housed in a metallic robotic body? What about housing it in a

body made of ceramic and plastic and fiber so that it looks and feels like a human body—and has

a human brain besides?

But you know, I suspect that the cyborg will still have his troubles. He'll be different. No matter

how small the difference is, people will seize upon it.

We know that people who have human brains and full human bodies sometimes hate each other

because of a slight difference in skin pigmentation, or a slight variation in the shape of the nose,

eyes, lips, or hair.

We know that people who show no difference in any of the physical characteristics that have

come to represent a cause for hatred, may yet be at daggers-drawn over matters that are not

physical at all, but cultural-differences in religion, or in political outlook, or in place of birth, or

in language, or in just the accent of a language.

Let's face it. Cyborgs will have their difficulties, no matter what.

CHAPTER 1

THE KEY TO PERIHELION

Derec sighed and ran his hand through his brush-cut sandy hair. “Katherine, I don’t know if this

stupid computer knows who has the Key to Perihelion or not. Anyhow, if it does, it won’t tell me.

I’ve asked it every way I can think of.” He swiveled his chair away from the computer console to

face her.

Katherine looked down at him from where she stood, and shook her head in apparent disgust. “I

didn’t know computers could be stupid,” she said pointedly.

“Well, this one is,” he muttered lamely, feeling his face grow hot. “Look if someone else

programmed a higher priority of secrecy into the computer, it won’t answer any questions it was

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IsaacAsimov'sRobotCityBook3:CyborgISAACASIMOV'SROBOTCITYBOOK3:CYBORGWILLIAMF.WUCopyright©1987ACKNOWLEDGMENTSSpecialthanksforhelpinwritingthisnovelareduetoDavidM.Harris\,MichaelP.Kube-McDowell,RobChilson,AlisonTelure,myparents,Dr.WilliamQ.Wuand\CecileF.Wu,andPlusFiveComputerServices,Inc.Thisnovelisde...

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