Robots and Empire

by Isaac Asimov

  "Possibly," said Daneel, "because an intensifier of that sort has something to do with his plans on Earth."

  "Possibly."

  And it was at this point that the door opened, a person entered, and a voice said, "Well—Giskard!"

  63.

  Giskard looked at the newcomer and said in a calm voice, "Madam Vasilia."

  "You remember me, then," said Vasilia, smiling warmly.

  "Yes, madam. You are a well-known roboticist and your face is on the hyperwave news now and then."

  "Come, Giskard. I do not mean that you recognize me. Anyone can do that. I mean, you remember me. You once called me Miss Vasilia."

  "I remember that, too, madam. It was a long time ago."

  Vasilia closed the door behind her and sat down in one of the chairs. She turned her face toward the other robot. "And you are Daneel, of course."

  Daneel said, "Yes, madam. To make use of the distinction you have just advanced, I both remember you, for I was with Plainclothesman Elijah Baley once when he interviewed you, and I recognize you, too."

  Vasilia, said sharply, "You are not to refer to that Earthman again. —I recognize you as well, Daneel. You are as famous as I am in your own way. You are both famous, for you are the greatest creations of the late Dr. Han Fastolfe."

  "Of your father, madam," said Giskard.

  "You know very well, Giskard, that I attach no importance to that purely genetic relationship. You are not to refer to him in that manner again."

  "I will not, madam."

  "And this one?" She looked casually at the sleeping figure on the couch. "Since you two are here, I can reasonably assume that the sleeping beauty is the Solarian woman."

  Giskard said, "She is Lady Gladia and I am her property. Do you want her awake, madam?"

  "We will merely disturb her, Giskard, if you and I talk of old times. Let her sleep."

  "Yes, madam."

  Vasilia said to Daneel, "Perhaps the discussion that Giskard and I will have will be of no interest to you, either, Daneel. Would you wait outside?"

  Daneel said, "I fear I cannot leave, my lady. My task is to guard Lady Gladia."

  "I don't think she needs much guarding from me. You'll notice I do not have any of my robots with me, so Giskard alone will be ample protection for your Solarian lady."

  Daneel said, "You have no robots in the room, madam, but I saw four robots just outside in the corridor when the door was opened. It will be best if I stay."

  "Well, I won't try to override your orders. You can stay. —Giskard!"

  "Yes, madam."

  "Do you remember when you were first activated?"

  "Yes, madam."

  "What do you remember?"

  "First light. Then sound. Then a crystallization into the sight of Dr. Fastolfe. I could understand Galactic Standard and I had a certain amount of innate knowledge built into my positronic brain paths. The Three Laws, of course; a large vocabulary, with definitions; robotic duties; social customs. Other things I learned rapidly."

  "Do you remember your first owner?"

  "As I said, Dr. Fastolfe."

  "Think again, Giskard. Wasn't it I?"

  Giskard paused, then said, "Madam, I was assigned the task of guarding you in my capacity as a possession of Dr. Han Fastolfe."

  "It was a bit more than that, I think. You obeyed only me for ten years. If you obeyed anyone else, including Dr. Fastolfe, it was only incidentally, as a consequence of your robotic duties and only insofar as it fit your prime function of guarding me."

  "I was assigned to you, it is true, Lady Vasilia, but Dr. Fastolfe retained ownership. Once you left his establishment, he resumed full control of me as my owner. He remained my owner even when he later assigned me to Lady Gladia. He was my only owner for as long as he lived. Upon his death, by his will, ownership of me was transferred to Lady Gladia and that is how it stands now."

  "Not so. I asked you if you remembered when you were first activated and what you remembered. What you were when you were first activated is not what you are now."

  "My memory banks, madam, are now incomparably fuller than they were then and I have much in the way of experience that I did not have then."

  Vasilia's voice grew sterner. "I am not talking about memory, nor am I talking about experience. I am talking about capacities. I added to your positronic pathways. I adjusted them. I improved them."

  "Yes, madam, you did so, with Dr. Fastolfe's help and approval."

  "At one time, Giskard, on one occasion, I introduced an improvement—at least, an extension, and without Dr. Fastolfe's help and approval. Do you remember that?"

  Giskard was silent for a substantial period of time. Then he said, "I remember one occasion on which I did not witness your consulting him. I assumed that you consulted him at a time when I was not a witness."

  "If you assumed that, you assumed incorrectly. In fact, since you knew he was off the world at the time, you could not possibly have assumed it. You are being evasive, to use no stronger word."

  "No, madam. You might have consulted him by hyperwave. I considered that a possibility."

  Vasilia, said, "Nevertheless, that addition was entirely mine. The result was that you became a substantially different robot afterward from what you had been before. The robot you have been ever since that change has been my design, my creation, and you know that well."

  Giskard remained silent.

  "Now, Giskard, by what right was Dr. Fastolfe your master at the time you were activated?" She waited, then said sharply, "Answer me, Giskard. That is an order!"

  Giskard said, "Since he was designer and supervised the construction, I was his property"

  "And when I, in effect, redesigned and reconstructed you in a very fundamental way, did you not then become my property."

  Giskard said, "I cannot answer that question. It would require the decision of a law court to argue out the specific case. It would depend, perhaps, on the degree to which I was redesigned and reconstructed."

  "Are you aware of the degree to which that took place?"

  Giskard was again silent.

  "This is childish, Giskard," said Vasilia. "Am I to be required to nudge you after each question? You are not to make me do that. In this case, at any rate, silence is a sure indication of an affirmative. You know what the change was and how fundamental it was and you know that I know what it was. You put the Solarian woman to sleep because you did not want her to learn from me what it was. She doesn't know, does she?"

  "She does not, madam," said Giskard.

  "And you don't want her to know?"

  "I do not, madam," said Giskard.

  "Does Daneel know?"

  "He does, madam."

  Vasilia nodded. "I rather suspected that from his eagerness to stay. —Now, then, listen to me, Giskard. Suppose that a court of law finds out that, before I redesigned you, you were an ordinary robot and that, after I redesigned you, you were a robot who could sense the mind-set of an individual human being and adjust it to his liking. Do you think they could possibly fail to consider, it a change great enough to warrant the ownership to have passed into my hands?"

  Giskard said, "Madam Vasilia, it would not be possible to let this come before a court of law. Under the circumstances, I would surely be declared the property of the state for obvious reasons. I might even be ordered inactivated."

  "Nonsense. Do you take me for a child? With your abilities, you could keep the court from making any such judgment. But that is not the point. I'm not suggesting that we take this to court. I am asking you for your own judgment. Would you not say that I am your rightful owner and have been since I was a very young woman?"

  Giskard said, "Madam Gladia considers herself to be my owner and, until the law speaks to the contrary, she must be considered that."

  "But you know that both she and the law labor under a misapprehension. If you worry about the feelings of your Solarian woman, it would be very easy to adjust her mindset so that she would
n't mind your no longer being her property. You can even cause her to feel relieved that I will take you off her hands. I will order you to do so as soon as you can bring yourself to admit what you already know—that I am your owner. How long has Daneel known your nature?"

  "For decades, madam."

  "You can make him forget. For some time now, Dr. Amadiro has known and you can make him forget. There will be only you and I who will know."

  Daneel said suddenly, "Madam Vasilia, since Giskard does not consider himself your property, he can easily make you forget and you will then be perfectly content with matters as they are."

  Vasilia turned a cold eye on Daneel. "Can he? But you see, it is not for you to decide who it is that Giskard considers his owner. I know that Giskard knows that I am his owner, so that his duty, within the Three Laws, belongs entirely to me. If he must make someone forget and can do so without physical harm, it will be necessary for him, in making a choice, to choose anyone but me. He cannot make me forget or tamper with my mind in any way. I thank you, Daneel, for giving me the occasion of making this quite plain."

  Daneel said, "But Madam Gladia's emotions are so enwrapped in Giskard that for him to force forgetfulness upon her might harm her."

  Vasilia said, "Giskard is the one to decide that. —Giskard, you are mine. You know you are mine and I order you to induce forgetfulness in this man-aping robot who stands beside you and in the woman who wrongfully treated you as her property. Do it while she is asleep and there will be no harm done to her of any kind."

  Daneel said, "Friend Giskard. Lady Gladia is your legal owner. If you induce forgetfulness in Lady Vasilia, it will not harm her."

  "But it will," said Vasilia at once. "The Solarian woman will not be harmed, for she need only forget that she is under the impression that she is Giskard's owner. I, on the other hand, also know that Giskard has mental powers. Digging that out will be more complex and Giskard can surely tell by my intense determination to keep that knowledge that he could not help but inflict damage on me in the process of removing it."

  Daneel said, "Friend Giskard—"

  Vasilia said, in a voice that was diamond-hard, "I order you, Robot Daneel Olivaw, to be silent. I am not your owner, but your owner is asleep and does not countermand it, so my order must be obeyed."

  Daneel fell silent, but his lips trembled as though he were trying to talk despite the order,

  Vasilia watched that manifestation with an amused smile on her lips. "You see, Daneel, you cannot talk."

  And Daneel said in a hoarse whisper, "I can, madam, I find it difficult, but I can, for I find that something takes precedence over your order, which is governed by only the Second Law."

  Vasilia's eyes opened wide and she said sharply, "Silence, I say. Nothing takes precedence over my order but the First Law and I have already shown that Giskard will do least harm—indeed, no harm at all—if he returns to me. He will do harm to me, to whom he is least capable of doing harm, if he follows any other course of action." She pointed her finger at Daneel and said again with a soft hiss, "Silence!"

  It was a clear effort for Daneel to make any sound at all. The small pump within him that manipulated the air current that produced the sound made a small, humming noise as it labored. Yet, though he spoke in an even lower whisper, he could still be heard.

  He said, "Madam Vasilia, there is something that transcends even the First Law."

  Giskard said, in a voice equally low, but unforced, "Friend Daneel, you must not say that. Nothing transcends the First Law. "

  Vasilia, frowning slightly, showed a spark of interest. "Indeed? Daneel, I warn you that if you attempt to progress further in this odd line of argument, you will surely destroy yourself. I have never seen or heard of a robot doing what you are doing and it would be fascinating to watch your self-destruction. Speak on."

  With the order given, Daneel's voice returned immediately to normal. "I thank you, Madam Vasilia. —Years ago, I sat at the deathbed of an Earthman to whom you have asked me not to refer. May I now refer to him or do you know who it is that I speak of?"

  "You speak of that policeman Baley," said Vasilia tonelessly.

  "Yes, madam. He said to me on his deathbed, 'The work of each individual contributes to a totality, and so becomes an undying part of the totality. That totality of human lives—past and present and to come—forms a tapestry that has been in existence now for many tens of thousands of years and has been growing more elaborate and, on the whole, more beautiful in all that time. Even the Spacers are an offshoot of the tapestry and they, too, add to the elaborateness and beauty of the pattern. An individual life is one thread in the tapestry and what is one thread compared to the whole? Daneel, keep your mind fixed firmly on the tapestry and do not let the trailing off of a single thread affect you.' "

  "Mawkish sentimentality," murmured Vasilia.

  Daneel said, "I believe Partner Elijah was attempting to protect me against the fact of his soon-to-come death. It was his own life he spoke of as but a thread in the tapestry; it was his own life that was 'the trailing off of a single thread' that was not to affect me. His words did protect me in that crisis."

  "No doubt," said Vasilia, "but get to the point of transcending the First Law, for it is that which will now destroy you."

  Daneel said, "For decades I have brooded over Plainclothesman Elijah Baley's statement and it is quite likely I would have understood it at once if the Three Laws had not stood in the way. I have been helped in my search by my friend Giskard, who has long felt the Three Laws to be incomplete. I have been helped also by points Lady Gladia made in a recent speech on a Settler world. What's more, this present crisis, Lady Vasilia, has served to sharpen my thinking. I am certain, now, as to the manner in which the Three Laws are incomplete."

  "A robot who is also a roboticist," said Vasilia with a touch of contempt. "How are the Three Laws incomplete, robot?"

  Daneel said, "The tapestry of life is more important than a single thread. Apply that not to Partner Elijah alone, but generalize it and—and—and we conclude that humanity as a whole is more important than a single human being."

  "You stumble as you say it, robot. You do not believe."

  Daneel said, "There is a law that is greater than the First Law: 'A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.' I think of it now as the Zeroth Law of Robotics. The First Law should then be stated: 'A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this would violate the Zeroth Law of Robotics.' "

  Vasilia snorted. "And you still stand on your feet, robot?"

  "I still stand on my feet, madam."

  "Then I will explain something to you, robot, and we will see if you can survive the explanation. —The Three Laws of Robotics involve individual human beings and individual robots. You can point to any individual human being or to an individual robot. But what is your 'humanity' but an abstraction? Can you point to humanity? You can injure or fail to injure a specific human being and understand the injury or lack of injury that has taken place. Can you see an injury to humanity? Can you understand it? Can you point to it?"

  Daneel was silent.

  Vasilia smiled broadly. "Answer, robot. Can you see an injury to humanity and can you point to it?"

  "No, madam, I cannot. But I believe such injury can exist nevertheless and you see that I still stand on my feet."

  "Then ask Giskard as to whether he will—or can—obey your Zeroth Law of Robotics."

  Daneel's head turned to Giskard. "Friend Giskard?"

  Slowly Giskard said, "I cannot accept the Zeroth Law, friend Daneel. You know that I have read widely in human history. In it, I have found great crimes committed by some human beings against each other and the excuse has always been that the crimes were justified by the needs of the tribe, or of the state, or even of humanity. It is precisely because humanity is an abstraction that it can be called upon so freely to justify anything at all an
d your Zeroth Law is therefore unsuitable."

  Daneel said, "But you know, friend Giskard, the fact that a danger to humanity now exists and that it will surely come to fruition if you become the property of Madam Vasilia. That, at least, is not an abstraction."

  Giskard said, "The danger to which you refer is not something known, but is merely inferred. We cannot build our actions in defiance of the Three Laws on that."

  Daneel paused, then said in a lower voice, "But you hope that your studies of human history will help you develop the Laws governing human behavior, that you will learn to predict and guide human history—or at lease make a beginning, so that someone someday will learn to predict and guide it. You even call the technique 'psychohistory.' In this, are you not dealing with the human tapestry? Are you not trying to work with humanity as a generalized whole, rather than with collections of individual human beings?"

  "Yes, friend Daneel, but it is thus far no more than a hope and I cannot base my actions upon a mere hope, nor can I modify the Three Laws in accordance with it."

  To that, Daneel did not respond.

  Vasilia said, "Well, robot, all your attempts have come to nothing and yet you stand on your feet. You are strangely stubborn and a robot such as yourself that can denounce the Three Laws and still remain functional is a clear danger to every and any individual human being. For that reason, I believe you should be dismantled without delay. The case is too dangerous to await the slow majesty of the law, especially since you are, after all, a robot and not the human being you attempt to resemble."

  Daneel said, "Surely, my lady, it is not fitting for you to reach such a decision on your own."

  "I have reached it nevertheless and if there are legal repercussions hereafter, I shall deal with them."

  "You will be depriving Lady Gladia of a second robot—and one to which you make no claim."

  "She and Fastolfe, between them, have deprived me of my robot, Giskard, for more than twenty decades and I do not believe this ever distressed either of them for a moment it will not now distress me to deprive her. She has dozens of other robots and there are many here at the Institute who will faithfully see to her safety until she can return to her own."