Isaac Asimov - The Positronic Man

"And exist even now?"

"Even now. As you surely must know. And so the Legislature would be unwilling to act in the way you wish it to. We would all readily concede the fact that you have earned the prize of humanity many times over, and yet we would be frightened by the political consequences of setting an undesirable precedent."

"Undesirable?" Andrew cried, unable to keep a tone of exasperation from creeping into his voice. "Why undesirable? If I'm such a wonderful benefactor of humanity-"

"Yes. But you are a robot. I can hear the outcry now. 'Give one robot human status, and they'll all be asking for it next, and then what's going to happen to-' "

"No," Andrew said. "Not so. I went to court years before you were born and got myself declared a free robot, and the same outcry was raised then. We were able to defeat it. And I'm still the only free robot in the world. No other robot has so much as requested free status, let alone been granted it. And none ever will. I'm unique, Madam Chairman. I'm the only robot of my type that exists, and you can be quite certain that there won't ever be another. If you don't believe me, ask the head of U. S. Robots and Mechanical Men, and he'll tell you that they'll never again allow the construction of a robot as intelligent, as difficult-minded, as troublesome as I turned out to be."

"'Never' is a long time, Andrew. Or would you prefer that I call you 'Mr. Martin'? I will, you know. I will gladly give you my personal accolade as human. But you'll find that most Legislators will be unwilling to set such a startling precedent, even though you provide iron-clad assurances that you are unique and so it will be no precedent at all. Mr. Martin, you have my warmest sympathies. But I can't offer you any real hope."

"You can't? Nothing at all?"

Chee Li-hsing sat back and her forehead furrowed in a deep frown. "The one thing I can offer you, Mr. Martin, is a friendly warning. You are placing yourself in great danger, you need to realize, by making these demands. Indeed, if the issue grows too heated, there might well arise a certain sentiment, both inside the Legislature and certainly outside it, for the very dismantling that you mentioned. A robot of your extraordinary level of attainment could easily be seen as highly threatening, Mr. Martin. Doing away with you could remove that threat and be the easiest way of resolving the difficult political dilemma that you will be forcing upon my colleagues. Consider that, I beg you, before deciding to push matters. "

Andrew said, " And will no one remember that the technique of prosthetology, which is allowing the members of the Legislature to go on holding their seats decade after decade when they should by rights be doddering off to their graves, is something that is almost entirely mine?"

"It may seem cruel of me to say it, but they won't. Or if they do, it'll be something that they'll hold against you rather than count in your favor. Have you ever heard the old saying, 'No good deed goes unpunished?' "

Andrew shrugged and shook his head. "Such a statement makes no sense to me."

"I suppose not. You still aren't very comfortable with our little human irrationalities, are you? But what it means, basically, is that we have a way of turning on those who do us the greatest kindnesses. -No, don't try to dispute it. It's just the way we are."

"Very well. And how does this apply to me?"

"It'll be said, perhaps, that you created prosthetology mainly to serve your own needs. The argument will be raised that the whole science was merely part of a campaign to roboticize human beings, or to humanify robots, and in either case it is something evil and vicious."

"No," Andrew said. "I'm not able to comprehend that kind of reasoning."

"No. You can't, can you? Because ultimately you are still a logical creature controlled by your positronic pathways. And there's no sort of upgrade, I suppose, that can make your way of thinking as erratic as ours can sometimes be. The true depths of irrationality are beyond your reach -which you should not take as any criticism of you, only as a simple statement of the realities. You are very human in most essential respects, Mr. Martin, but you are incapable, I'm afraid, of understanding just how far from rationality human beings will go when they believe that their interests are at stake."

"But if their interests are at stake," Andrew said, "I would think they would attempt to be as rational as possible, so that they would be able to-"

"No. Please. There's no way I can make you truly understand. I can only ask you to accept the validity of what I'm saying. To take it on faith, if that concept has any meaning for you. -You have never been the object of a political hate campaign, have you, Mr. Martin?"

"I don't believe so."

"You would have known it if you had. Well, you will be now. If you persist in this campaign to have yourself declared human, you'll be the object of vilification of a kind neither you nor I would credit and there'll be millions of people who will believe every word of it. Mr. Martin, take a word of advice from me. Accept the condition of your life as it is now. To try to do what you want to do now would be the greatest folly."

"That is what you believe, is it?"

"Yes. That is what I believe." And Chee Li-hsing rose from her desk and walked toward the window and stood there with her back to Andrew. Brilliant light was streaming in, outlining her form with great clarity. From where Andrew sat, her bare figure within the shimmering plastic wrap seemed almost like that of a child-or a doll.

He looked toward Li-hsing for a few moments without saying anything.

Then he asked, "If I decide to fight for my humanity despite all you've said, will you be on my side?"

She continued to stare out the window. Andrew studied her long glossy black hair, her thin shoulders, her delicate arms. She seemed very much like a doll, he thought. And yet he was very much aware by now that indeed there was nothing doll-like about the Chairman of the World Legislature's Science and Technology Committee except her appearance. There was real strength behind that fragile surface.

After a time she said, "Yes, I will-"

"Thank you."

"-insofar as it's possible for me to be," Li-hsing continued smoothly. "But you have to realize that, if at any time my taking a stand in your favor would appear to threaten my political career in a serious way, I might have to abandon you, since this isn't an issue that I feel to be at the very root of my beliefs. What I'm trying to say, Mr. Martin, is that I feel for you, I am saddened by your predicament, but I don't intend to wreck my political future for you. I'm trying to be as honest as I can with you."

"I'm grateful for that, and I can ask no more."

"And do you intend to fight?" she said.

"Yes. Yes, I do. I'll fight it through to the end, whatever the consequences. And I'll count on your help-but only for as long as you can give it."

IT WAS NOT A DIRECT FIGHT. Andrew had given Simon DeLong the clue to the right strategy to use, and Andrew agreed with the tactic; but it was DeLong's considered professional opinion that the campaign was going to be roundabout and slow. DeLong counseled patience.

"I have an endless supply of that, I suppose," Andrew muttered grimly.

Feingold and Charney then entered into a campaign to narrow and restrict the area of combat.

A certain Roger Hennessey of San Francisco, who had been the recipient of a Martin prosthetic heart seven years before, had supplied robot janitorial services to the Feingold and Charney offices under a contract that had been in effect since the days of Paul Charney. Abruptly Feingold and Charney stopped paying Hennessey's bills. The account was a good one and it went back many years, so for a time Hennessey said nothing about it. But when five months of unpaid bills had piled up, Hennessey found an occasion to stop by at Feingold and Charney to have a chat with Simon DeLong.