Isaac Asimov - The Robots of Dawn

“Most roboticists shrugged and felt that this was natural. They could only try, individually, to work out the details for themselves. I, on the other hand, was struck by the possibility of an Institute in which efforts would be pooled. It wasn’t easy to persuade other roboticists of the usefulness of the plan, or to persuade the Legislature to fund it against Fastolfe’s formidable opposition, or to persevere through the years of effort, but here we are.”

Baley said, “Why was Dr. Fastolfe opposed?”

“Ordinary self-love, to begin with—and I have no fault to find with that, you understand. All of us have a very natural self-love. It comes with the territory of individualism. The point is that Fastolfe considers himself the greatest roboticist in history and also considers the humaniform robot his own particular achievement. He doesn’t want that achievement duplicated by a group of roboticists, individually faceless compared to himself. I imagine he viewed it as a conspiracy of inferiors to dilute and deface his own great victory.”

“You say that was his motive for opposition ‘to begin with.’ That means there were other motives. What were they?”

“He also objects to the uses to which we plan to put the humaniform robots.”

“What uses are these, Dr. Amadiro?”

“Now, now. Let’s not be ingenuous. Surely Dr. Fastolfe has told you of the Globalist plans for settling the Galaxy?”

“That he has and, for that matter, Dr. Vasilia has spoken to me of the difficulties of scientific advance among individualists. However, that does not stop me from wanting to hear your views on these matters. Nor should it stop you from wanting to tell me. For instance, do you want me to accept Dr. Fastolfe’s interpretation of Globalist plans as unbiased and impartial—and would you state that for the record? Or would, you prefer to describe your plans in your own words?”

“Put that way, Mr. Baley, you intend to give me no choice.”

“None, Dr. Amadiro.”

“Very well. I—we, I should say, for the people at the Institute are like-minded in this—look into the future and wish to see humanity opening ever more and ever newer planets to settlement. We do not, however, want the process of self-selection to destroy the older planets or to reduce them to moribundity am in the case—pardon me—of Earth. We don’t want the new planets to take the best of us and to leave behind the dregs. You see that, don’t you?”

“Please go on.”

“In any robot-oriented society, as in the case of our own, the easy solution is to send out robots as settlers. The robots will build the society and the world and we can then all follow later without selection, for the new world will be as comfortable and as adjusted to ourselves as the old worlds were, so that we can go on to new worlds without leaving home, so to speak.”

“Won’t the robots create robot worlds rather than human worlds?”

“Exactly, if we send out robots that are nothing but robots. We have, however, the opportunity of sending out humaniform robots like Daneel here, who, in creating worlds for themselves, would automatically create worlds for us. Dr. Fastolfe, however, objects to this. He finds some virtue in the thought of human beings carving a new world out of a strange and forbidding planet and does not see that the effort to do so would not only cost enormously in human life, but would also create a world molded by catastrophic events into something not at all like the worlds we know.”

“As the Spacer worlds today are different from Earth and from each other?”

Amadiro, for a moment, lost his joviality and looked thoughtful. “Actually, Mr. Baley, you touch an important point. I am discussing Aurora only. The Spacer worlds do indeed differ among themselves and I am not overly fond of most of them. It is clear to me—though I may be prejudiced—that Aurora, the oldest among them, is also the best and most successful. I don’t want a variety of new worlds of which only a few might be really valuable. I want many Auroras—uncounted millions of Auroras—and for that reason I want new worlds carved into Auroras before human beings go there. That’s why we call ourselves ‘Globalists’ by the way. We are concerned with this globe of ours—Aurora—and no other.”

“Do you see no value in variety, Dr. Amadiro?”

“If the varieties were equally good, perhaps there would be value, but if some—or most—are inferior, how would that benefit humanity?”

“When do you start this work?”

“When we have the humaniform robots with which to do it. So far there were Fastolfe’s two, of which he destroyed one, leaving Daneel the only specimen.” His eyes strayed briefly to Daneel as he spoke.

“When will you have humaniform robots?”

“That is difficult to say. We have not yet caught up with Dr. Fastolfe.”

“Even though he is one and you are many, Dr. Amadiro?”

Amadiro twitched his shoulders slightly. “You waste your sarcasm, Mr. Baley. Fastolfe was well ahead of us to begin with and, though the Institute has been in embryo for a long time, we have been fully at work for only two years. Besides, it will be necessary for us not only to catch up with Fastolfe but to move ahead of him. Daneel is a good product, but he is only a prototype and is not good enough.”

“In what way must the humaniform robots be improved beyond Daneel’s mark?”

“They must be even more human, obviously. They must exist in both sexes and there must be the equivalent of children. We must have a generational spread if a sufficiently human society is to be built up on the planets.”

“I think I see difficulties, Dr. Amadiro.”

“No doubt. There are many. Which difficulties do you foresee, Mr. Baley?”

“If your produce humaniform robots who are so humaniform they can produce a human society, and if they are produced with a generational spread, in both sexes, how will you be able to distinguish them from human beings?”

“Will that matter?”

“It might. If such robots are too human, they might melt into Auroran society and become part of human family groups and might not be suitable for service as pioneers.”

Amadiro laughed. “That thought clearly entered your head because of Gladia Delmarre’s attachment to Jander. You see, I know something of your interview with that woman from my conversations with Gremionis and with Dr. Vasilia. I remind you that Gladia is from Solaria and her notion of what constitutes a husband is not necessarily Auroran in nature.”

“I was not thinking of her in particular. I was thinking that sex on Aurora is broadly interpreted and that robots as sex partners are tolerated even now, with robots who are—only approximately humaniform. If you really cannot tell a robot from a human being—”

“There’s the question of children. Robots can neither father nor mother children.”

“But that brings up another point. The robots will be long-lived, since the proper building of the society may take centuries.”

“They would, in any case, have to be long-lived if they are to resemble Aurorans.”

“And the children—also long-lived?”

Amadiro did not speak.

Baley said, “These will be artificial robot children and will never grow older—they will not age and mature. Surely this will create an element sufficiently nonhuman to cast the nature of the society into doubt.”

Amadiro sighed. “You are penetrating, Mr. Baley. It is indeed our thought to devise some scheme whereby robots can produce babies who can in some fashion grow and mature—at least long enough to establish the society we want.”

“And then, when human beings arrive, the robots can be restored to more robotic schemes of behavior.”