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I, Robot Notes

This document provides a summary of the 1950 short story "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov. It outlines the key details of the story including the author, time period, characters, plot summaries of individual stories within "I, Robot" ("Runaround", "Reason", "Catch That Rabbit", "Liar", "Little Lost Robot", "Evidence"), and an overview of the three laws of robotics proposed by Asimov that robots in the story are programmed with.

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114 views

I, Robot Notes

This document provides a summary of the 1950 short story "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov. It outlines the key details of the story including the author, time period, characters, plot summaries of individual stories within "I, Robot" ("Runaround", "Reason", "Catch That Rabbit", "Liar", "Little Lost Robot", "Evidence"), and an overview of the three laws of robotics proposed by Asimov that robots in the story are programmed with.

Uploaded by

viktorrdj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I, Robot (1950)

THE AUTHOR

Author: Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) (mainly science-fiction) writer, associate professor of


biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine

Other popular works: Nightfall (1941)

The Three Laws of Robotics (proposed by Isaac Asimov) These are built into robots’
positronic brains

1. A robot must not …………………………………. a human being, or, through


inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the …………………………………. given it by human beings except
where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own ………………………………… as long as such protection does
not conflict with the First or Second Law.

TIME and PLACE

2053, Earth, Mining Station on Mercury, Solar Station,

The story is told by Dr Susan Calvin to a journalist

BACKGROUND

US Robots Company: the company (offices and factories) that produces robots
First robots couldn’t talk. It took a long time for US robots to make them more human.
Solar Stations
Robots’ work:
mining minerals in Mercury
controlling solar stations that send solar energy to Earth. Robots do the work,
and only two humans are needed at each station.
later on, they led the change on Earth from nations to regions. A robot, Stephen
Byerley, became the first World Governor in 1944.
First Expedition to Mercury (2005) failed.
Second Expedition 2015
Challenges, problems: Robots’ positronic brains do not work properly

CHARACTERS
A journalist: the narrator, he interviews Dr Susan Calvin
Dr Susan Calvin (75 at the beginning of the story): to be retired, has been the first
robot psychologist for 50 years
Dr Alfred Lanning: an engineer at US Robots, Managing Director of the company
Dr Michal Donovan (Mike) (sent on the Second Expedition)
Dr Gregory Powell (Greg) (sent on the Second Expedition)
Peter Bogert: a mathematician
Milton Ashe: a mathematician

RUNAROUND
Characters: Donovan and Powell, Robot SPD (“Speedy”), six old robots from the First
Expedition
Place: Mercury Station
Robot’s assignment: to fetch selenium in order to repair the photocells of the Sunside
Station (these photocell banks protect them from Mercury’s terrible sun)
Problem: SP-D might have got lost. He has run around the pool several times and
hasn’t returned to the Station with the selenium.
“The Third Law drives him back from the pool, and then when he gets away from the
pool, the Second Law drives him forward towards the pool again.”
“It was just a routine order. I just told him that we needed some selenium and that he
should go and get it.”
They use the old robots to find and take back SPD.
Outcome: First Powell gives SPD a new order “I must get back to the shadow. It’s life or
death, Speedy. I need you.”, “Speedy, I’m dying! (…)”
Later, Donovan orders SPD to go to another pool and get the selenium urgently. “This
time I explained that it was essential to get the selenium urgently.”
(This activates the First Law)
REASON
Characters: Donovan and Powell, Robot QT-1 (“Cutie”, the “highest type of robot ever
made”, “first robot that has ever been curious about himself and the outside world”)
Place: Solar Station 5
Robot’s assignment: to control Solar Station 5
Problem: QT-1 believes that he was created by the Energy Converter, at the centre of
the Solar Station, which he calls “The Master”, and not by humans: “You can’t possibly
have made me. Obviously no being can create another one of much higher quality
than itself.”
When Donovan gets angry and spits at the Converter, QT-1 takes over the control
room and the engine room of the Station and sends Donovan and Powell to the
officers’ room
They are afraid that he won’t be able to avoid the next coming electron storm (But
they are WRONG) so they decide to reason, argue with QT-1 to convince him that he
was made by humans and eventually get back to the control room. They build a robot
in front of him, but this makes no difference to QT-1: he still thinks the parts were
created by the “Master”: “Your brains are probably too weak to understand the
whole truth.”
Outcome: In the end, QT-1 successfully manages to keep the beam straight, and so
prevents destruction on Earth. “He can control the solar station perfectly. What does
it matter what he believes?”

CATCH THAT RABBIT


Characters: Donovan and Powell, Robot DV-5 (“Dave”), who controls six other
subsidiary robots (Dave’s “fingers”)
Place: Asteroid
Robot’s assignment: to mine on asteroids (collect ore)
Problem: The robot is not productive, he’s not bringing back any ore. “He goes wrong
only when we’re not near.” “We must discover the problem before we can solve it.”
(“You must catch the rabbit before you can make rabbit stew”)
The robots set about marching like soldiers, with DV-1 in front. “They’re absolutely
mad”. The problem seems to lie with personal initiative. DV-1 lacks personal initiative
in emergency situations.
So the engineers create an emergency situation by causing some rocks to fall inside
one of the tunnels. However, they end up getting trapped by their own roof. When
this happens the men expect that the robots will dig them out of the tunnel, but the
robots are dancing towards the men and then move away.
Powell then fires his gun at one of the subsidiary robots and destroys it.
Outcome: DV-1 rescues Donovan and Powell. “In a normal situation, several of the
subsidiaries would be doing routine jobs. And orders would be given separately. But in
an emergency, all six subsidiaries must be given orders at exactly the same time.
Dave can’t communicate with all six at the same time, so his circuits get overloaded
and he begins to act crazy.” With only five subsidiaries, “the initiative needed wasn’t
so great.”

LIAR
Characters: Alfred Lanning, mathematicians Peter Bogert and Milton Ashe (youngest
director of US Robots), Dr Calvin, Robot RB 34 (“Herbie”), is a better mathematician
than the humans
Place: Earth
Problem: Robot RB 34 can read minds. This is due to a mistake in the production of the
positronic brain. “I want to read your novels, your stories, to find out how your minds
work, and to learn about human feelings.”
Dr Calvin discovers that Herbie knows she is in love with Milton Ashe. He confirms this
and lets her think that Ashe loves her too, but Herbie is lying to her.
Herbie also lies to Bogert by telling him that Alfred Lanning has resigned, and Bogert
will be the next Managing Director.
Finally, Herbie lies when he tells Bogert that he (Herbie) knows very little about
mathematics.
“The three of us have fallen into the same trap.”
“Herbie reads our minds and gives us the answers we want to hear. He can’t tell us the
truth if he knows the truth would hurt us. If he did that he would be breaking the
First Law. A robot can’t do that.“ “He knows everything, including the mistake which
was made in the factory when he was being produced.”
Outcome:
Dr Calvin crates a conflict in the robot’s brain which renders him useless, so they get rid
of him: “You must tell them the truth (about the mistake in the positronic brain), but
if you do, you will hurt them. So you mustn’t tell them, but if you don’t tell them, you
are hurting them. So you must tell them.”

LITTLE LOST ROBOT


Characters: Dr Calvin, Dr Bogert, General Kallner, Gerald Black, 63 NS-2s Robots
(“Nestors”), Robot NS 10, a cleverer type of robot who has learnt physics
Place: main station of the 27th group of asteroids
Problem: Some of the NS-2 robots were made without the second part of The First
Law, so that they would allow humans to work near radiation (radiation that was not
dangerous for humans). Otherwise, when robots rushed to protect a human, radiation
would destroy their positronic brain.
Now an NS-2 robot has got lost and work has been stopped until he is found, because
Nestor 10 is one of the robots with a modified First Law.
Black says: “I had a little trouble with him. I was late with my work, and he came and
asked me to repeat some tests we had done a month ago. He was always annoying me
about that and I was impatient. I used some strong language and -and told him to get
lost.” “Nestor 10 is aware of what we are doing. He’s deliberately hiding from us”.
Nestor 10 wants to prove his superior intellect to the humans.
Outcome: in a test carried out to find Nestor 10, Dr Calvin and Black trick the NS-2s
into believing that the Radiation room is flooded with dangerous radiation, so they
don’t move when the human is in danger; except for Nestor 10, who knows the
radiation is harmless because he has worked at the station before and has learnt
physics. He thinks that the other robots know, too, but he is wrong. After that, Nestor
10 tries to attack Dr Calvin, and Dr Black floods the room with radiation which is fatal
for the robot.

EVIDENCE
Characters: Francis Quinn, a politician; Dr Lanning, Robot Stephen Byerley, a
humanoid robot; John (Stephen’s “old teacher”)
Place: Earth, 2032
Problem: Stephen Byerley and Quinn both want to become the next City Governor.
Quinn is ready to accuse Byerley publicly of being a robot, as there are a lot of people
who are against the development of robots. “Nobody would vote for Byerley, if
evidence was produced that he was a robot.”
Dr Calvin: “I can’t prove that he is a robot, but I can prove that he isn’t a robot.”
In a meeting, Byerley is attacked by someone and he fights him back. Then it becomes
obvious that he isn’t a robot, because of The First Law of Robotics.
Outcome: It turns out that the man in the meeting is a robot that John had created to
make people believe that Byerley is not a robot.

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