RC1 - Odyssey, Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 1 - Michael P Kube-McDowell

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ISAAC ASIMOV'S

ISAAC ASIMOV’S

ROBOT

CITY

Book 1: ODYSSEY

MICHAEL P.

KUBE-McDOWELL

For all the students

who made my seven years of teaching time

well spent,

but especially for:

Wendy Armstrong, Todd Bontrager, Kathy Branum, Jay & Joel Carlin, Valerie Eash, Chris

Franko, Judy Fuller, Chris & Bryant Hackett, Kean Hankins, Doug Johsnson, Greg LaRue, Julie

Merrick, Kendall Miller, Matt Mow, Amy Myers, Khai & Vihn Pham, Melanie & Laura Schrock,

Sally Sibert, Stephanie Smith, Tom Williams, Laura Joyce Yoder, Scott Yoder

And for

Joy Von Blon, who made sure they always had something good to read.

— MICHAEL P. KUBE MCDOWELL

MY ROBOTS

by ISAAC ASIMOV

I wrote my first robot story, “Robbie,” in May of 1939, when I was only nineteen years old.

What made it different from robot stories that had been written earlier was that I was determined

not to make my robots symbols. They were not to be symbols of humanity’s over-weening

arrogance. They were not to be examples of human ambitions trespassing on the domain of the

Almighty. They were not to be a new Tower of Babel requiring punishment.

Nor were the robots to be symbols of minority groups. They were not to be pathetic creatures that

were unfairly persecuted so that I could make Aesopic statements about Jews, Blacks or any other

mistreated members of society. Naturally, I was bitterly opposed to such mistreatment and I made

that plain in numerous stories and essays—but not in my robot stories.

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ISAAC ASIMOV'S

In that case, what did I make my robots?—I made them engineering devices. I made them tools. I

made them machines to serve human ends. And I made them objects with built-in safety features.

In other words, I set it up so that a robot could not kill his creator, and having outlawed that

heavily overused plot, I was free to consider other, more rational consequences.

Since I began writing my robot stories in 1939, I did not mention computerization in their

connection. The electronic computer had not yet been invented and I did not foresee it. I did

foresee, however, that the brain had to be electronic in some fashion. However, “electronic”

didn’t seem futuristic enough. The positron—a subatomic particle exactly like the electron but of

opposite electric charge—had been discovered only four years before I wrote my first robot story.

It sounded very science fictional indeed, so I gave my robots “positronic brains” and imagined

their thoughts to consist of flashing streams of positrons, coming into existence, then going out of

existence almost immediately. These stories that I wrote were therefore called “the positronic

robot series,” but there was no greater significance than what I have just described to the use of

positrons rather than electrons.

At first, I did not bother actually systematizing, or putting into words, just what the safeguards

were that I imagined to be built into my robots. From the very start, though, since I wasn’t going

to have it possible for a robot to kill its creator, I had to stress that robots could not harm human

beings; that this was an ingrained part of the makeup of their positronic brains.

Thus, in the very first printed version of “Robbie” (it appeared in the September 1940 Super

Science Stories, under the title of “Strange Playfellow”), I had a character refer to a robot as

follows: “He just can’t help being faithful and loving and kind. He’s a machine, made so.”

After writing “Robbie,” which John Campbell, of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected, I went on

to other robot stories which Campbell accepted. On December 23, 1940, I came to him with an

idea for a mind-reading robot (which later became “Liar!”) and John was dissatisfied with my

explanations of why the robot behaved as it did. He wanted the safeguard specified precisely so

that we could understand the robot. Together, then, we worked out what came to be known as the

“Three Laws of Robotics.” The concept was mine, for it was obtained out of the stories I had

already written, but the actual wording (if I remember correctly) was beaten out then and there by

the two of us.

The Three Laws were logical and made sense. To begin with, there was the question of safety,

which had been foremost in my mind when I began to write stories about my robots. What’s more

I was aware of the fact that even without actively attempting to do harm, one could quietly, by

doing nothing, allow harm to come. What was in my mind was Arthur Hugh Clough’s cynical

“The Latest Decalog,” in which the Ten Commandments are rewritten in deeply satirical

Machiavellian fashion. The one item most frequently quoted is: “Thou shalt not kill, but needst

not strive/Officiously to keep alive.”

For that reason I insisted that the First Law (safety) had to be in two parts and it came out this

way:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to

harm.

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ISAAC ASIMOV'S

Having got that out of the way, we had to pass on to the second law (service). Naturally, in giving

the robot the built-in necessity to follow orders, you couldn’t forfeit the overall concern of safety.

The second law had to read as follows, then:

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would

conflict with the First Law.

And finally, we had to have a third law (prudence). A robot was bound to be an expensive

machine and it must not needlessly be damaged or destroyed. Naturally, this must not be used as

a way of compromising either safety or service. The Third Law, therefore, had to read as follows:

3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the

First or Second Laws.

Of course, these laws are expressed in words, which is an imperfection. In the positronic brain,

they are competing positronic potentials that are best expressed in terms of advanced

mathematics (which is well beyond my ken, I assure you). However, even so, there are clear

ambiguities. What constitutes “harm” to a human being? Must a robot obey orders given it by a

child, by a madman, by a malevolent human being? Must a robot give up its own expensive and

useful existence to prevent a trivial harm to an unimportant human being? What is trivial and

what is unimportant?

These ambiguities are not shortcomings as far as a writer is concerned. If the Three Laws were

perfect and unambiguous there would be no room for stories. It is in the nooks and crannies of the

ambiguities that all one’s plots can lodge, and which provide a foundation, if you’ll excuse the

pun, for Robot City.

I did not specifically state the Three Laws in words in “Liar!” which appeared in the May 1941

Astounding. I did do so, however, in my next robot story, “Runaround,” which appeared in the

March 1942 Astounding. In that issue on line seven of page one hundred, I have a character say,

“Now, look, let’s start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics,” and I then quote them.

That, incidentally, as far as I or anyone else has been able to tell, represents the first appearance

in print of the word “robotics”—which, apparently, I invented.

Since then, I have never had occasion, over a period of over forty years during which I wrote

many stories and novels dealing with robots, to be forced to modify the Three Laws. However, as

time passed, and as my robots advanced in complexity and versatility, I did feel that they would

have to reach for something still higher. Thus, in Robots and Empire, a novel published by

Doubleday in 1985, I talked about the possibility that a sufficiently advanced robot might feel it

necessary to consider the prevention of harm to humanity generally as taking precedence over the

prevention of harm to an individual. This I called the “Zeroth Law of Robotics,” but I’m still

working on that.

My invention of the Three Laws of Robotics is probably my most important contribution to

science fiction. They are widely quoted outside the field, and no history of robotics could

possibly be complete without mention of the Three Laws. In 1985, John Wiley and Sons

published a huge tome, Handbook of Industrial Robotics, edited by Shimon Y. Nof, and, at the

editor’s request, I wrote an introduction concerning the Three Laws.

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ISAAC ASIMOV'S

Now it is understood that science fiction writers generally have created a pool of ideas that form a

common stock into which all writers can dip. For that reason, I have never objected to other

writers who have used robots that obey the Three Laws. I have, rather, been flattered and,

honestly, modern science fictional robots can scarcely appear without those Laws.

However, I have firmly resisted the actual quotation of the Three Laws by any other writer. Take

the Laws for granted, is my attitude in this matter, but don’t recite them. The concepts are

everyone’s but the words are mine.

But, then, I am growing old. I cannot expect to live for very much longer, but I hope that some of

my brainchildren can. And to help those brainchildren attain something approaching long life, it

is just as well if I relax my rules and allow others to make use of them and reinvigorate them.

After all, much has happened in science since my first robot stories were published four decades

ago, and this has to be taken into consideration, too.

Therefore, when Byron Preiss came to me with the notion of setting up a series of novels under

the overall title of Robot City, in which “Asimovian” robots and ideas were to be freely used, I

felt drawn to the notion. Byron said that I would serve as a consultant to make sure that my

robots stay “Asimovian,” that I would answer questions, make suggestions, veto infelicities, and

provide the basic premise for the series as well as challenges for the authors. (And so it was done.

Byron and I sat through a series of breakfasts in which he asked questions and I—and sometimes

my wife, Janet, as well—answered, thus initiating some rather interesting discussions.)

Furthermore, my name was to be used in the title so as to insure the fact that readers would know

that the project was developed in conjunction with me, and was carried through with my help and

knowledge. It is, indeed, a pleasure to have talented young writers devote their intelligence and

ingenuity to the further development of my ideas, doing so each in his or her own way.

The first novel of the series, Robot City Book 1: Odyssey, is by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, the

author of Emprise, and I am very pleased to be connected with it. The prose is entirely Michael’s;

I did none of it. In saying this, I am not trying to disown the novel at all; rather I want to make

sure that Michael gets all the credit from those who like the writing. It is my role, as I have

indicated, only to supply robotic concepts, answer (as best I can) questions posed by Byron and

Michael, and suggest solutions to problems raised by the Three Laws. In fact, Book Two of this

series will introduce three interesting new laws concerning the way robots would deal with

humans in a robotic society, a relationship which is the underpinning of Robot City.

In nearly half a century of writing I have built up a name that is well known and carries weight

and I would like to use it to help pave the way for young writers by way of their novels and to

preserve the names of older writers by the editing of anthologies. The science fiction field in

general and a number of science fiction practitioners in particular have, after all, been very good

to me over the years, and the best repayment I can make is to do for others what it and they have

done for me.

Let me emphasize that this is the first time I have allowed others to enter my world of robots and

to roam about freely there. I am pleased with what I’ve seen so far, including the captivating

artwork of Paul Rivoche, and I look forward to seeing what is done with my ideas and the

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ISAAC ASIMOV'S

concepts I have proposed in the books that follow. The books may not be (indeed, are bound not

to be) exactly as I would have written them, but all the better. We’ll have other minds and other

personalities at work, broadening, raising, and refocusing my ideas.

For you, the reader, the adventure is about to begin.

CHAPTER 1

AWAKENING

The youth strapped in the shock couch at the center of the small chamber appeared to be

peacefully sleeping. The muscles of his narrow face were relaxed, and his eyes were closed. His

head had rolled forward until his chin rested on the burnished metal neck ring of his orange

safesuit. With his smooth cheeks and brush-cut sandy blond hair, he looked even younger than he

was—young enough to raise the doorman’s eyebrow at the least law-abiding spaceport bar.

He came to consciousness slowly, as though he had been cheated of sleep and was reluctant to

give it up. But as the fog cleared, he had a sudden, terrifying sensation of leaning out over the

edge of a cliff.

His eyes flashed open, and he found himself looking down. The couch into which the five-point

harness held him was tipped forward. Without the harness, he would have awakened in a jumbled

heap on the tiny patch of sloping floor plate, wedged against the one-ply hatch that faced him.

He raised his head, and his darting eyes quickly took in the rest of his surroundings. There was

little to see. He was alone in the tiny chamber. If he unstrapped himself, there would be room for

him to stand up, perhaps to turn around, but nothing more ambitious. A safesuit helmet was

cached in a recess on the curving right bulkhead. On the left bulkhead was a dispensary, with its

water tube and delivery chute.

None of what he saw made sense, so he simply continued to catalog it. Above his head, hanging

from the ceiling, was some sort of command board with a bank of eight square green lamps

labeled “P1,” “P2,” “F,” and the like. The board was in easy reach, except that there appeared to

be no switches or controls for him to manipulate. In one corner of the panel the word MASSEY

was etched in stylized black letters.

Apart from the slight rasp of his own breathing, the little room was nearly silent. From the

machinery which filled the space behind his shoulders and under his feet came the whir of an

impeller and a faint electric hum. But there was no sound from outside, from beyond the walls.

Thin as it was, the catalog was complete, and it was time to try to make something of it. He

realized that, although he did not recognize his surroundings, he was not surprised by them. But

then, since he could not remember where he had fallen asleep, he had carried no expectations

about where he should be when he awoke.

The simple truth was he did not know where he was. Or why he was there. He did not know how

long he had been there, or how he had gotten there.

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ISAACASIMOV'SISAACASIMOV’SROBOTCITYBook1:ODYSSEYMICHAELP.KUBE-McDOWELLCopyright©1987Forallthestudentswhomademysevenyearsofteachingtimewellspent,butespeciallyfor:WendyArmstrong,ToddBontrager,KathyBranum,Jay&JoelCarlin,Valeri\eEash,ChrisFranko,JudyFuller,Chris&BryantHackett,KeanHankins,DougJohsnson\,G...

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