by Isaac Asimov
“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 wouldn’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 and 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.”
Daneel said, “Friend Giskard, if you will wake Lady Gladia, it may be that she may persuade Lady Vasilia—”
Vasilia, looking at Giskard, frowned and said sharply, “No, Giskard. Le the woman sleep.”
Giskard, who had stirred at Daneel’s words, subsided.
Vasilia snapped the finger and thumb of her right hand three times and the door at once opened and four robots filed, in. “You were right, Daneel. There are four robots. They will dismantle you and you are ordered not to resist. Thereafter Giskard and I will deal with all remaining matters.”
She looked over her shoulder at the entering robots. “Close the door behind you. Now, quickly and efficiently, dismantle this robot,” and she pointed at Daneel.
The robots looked at Daneel and for a few seconds did not move. Vasilia said impatiently, “I’ve told you he is a robot and you must disregard his human appearance. Daneel, tell them you are a robot.”
“I am a robot,” said Daneel, “and I will not resist.”
Vasilia stepped to one side and the four robots advanced. Daneel’s arms remained at his side. He turned to look at the sleeping Gladia one last time and then he faced the robots.
Vasilia smiled and said, “This should be interesting.”
The robots paused. Vasilia said, “Get on with it.”
They did not move and Vasilia turned to stare in amazement at Giskard. She did not complete the movement. Her muscles loosened and she crumpled.
Giskard caught her and seated her with her back against the wall.
He said in a muffled voice, “I need a few moments and then we will leave.”
Those moments passed. Vasilia’s eyes remained glazed and unfocused. Her robots remained motionless. Daneel had moved to Gladia in a single stride.
Giskard looked up and said to Vasilia’s robots, “Guard your lady. Allow no one to enter until she wakes. She will waken peacefully.”
Even as he spoke, Gladia stiffed and Daneel helped her to her feet. She said, wondering, “Who is this woman? Whose robots—How did she—”
Giskard spoke firmly, but there was a weariness in his voice. “Lady Gladia, later. I will explain. For now, we must hasten.”
And they left.
PART V.
EARTH
15. THE HOLY WORLD
72
Amadiro bit his lower lip and his eyes flicked in the direction of Mandamus, who seemed lost in thought.
Amadiro said defensively, “She insisted on it. She told me that only she could handle this Giskard, that only she could exert a sufficiently strong influence over him and prevent him from using these mental powers of his.”
“You never said anything of this to me, Dr. Amadiro.”
“I wasn’t sure what there was to tell, young man. I wasn’t sure she was correct.”
“Are you sure now?”
“Completely. She remembers nothing of what went on—”
“So that we know nothing of what went on.”
Amadiro nodded. “Exactly. And she remembers nothing of what she had told me earlier.”
“And she’s not acting?”
“I saw to it that she had an emergency electroencephalogram. There have been distinct changes from the earlier records.”
“Is there a chance she will recover her memory with time?”
Amadiro shook his head bitterly. “Who can tell? But I doubt it.”
Mandamus’ eyes still downcast and full of thought, said, “Does it matter, then? We can take her account of Giskard as true and we know that he has the power to affect minds. That knowledge is crucial and it is now ours.—In fact, it is well that our roboticist colleague has failed. If Vasilia had gained control of that robot, how long do you suppose it would have been before you, too, would have been under her control—and I, as well,—assuming she would think I was worth controlling?”
Amadiro nodded. “I suppose she might have had something like that in mind. Right now, though, it’s hard to tell what she has in mind. She seems, superficially at least, undamaged except for the specific loss of memory�
��she apparently remembers everything else—but who knows how this will affect her deeper thought processes and her skill as a roboticist? That Giskard could do this to someone as skilled as she makes him an incredibly dangerous phenomenon.
“Does it occur to you, Dr. Amadiro, that the Settlers may be right in their distrust of robots?”
“It almost does, Mandamus.”
Mandamus rubbed his hands together. “I assume from your depressed attitude that this whole business was not uncovered before they had time to leave Aurora.”
“You assume correctly. That Settler captain has the Solarian woman and both of her robots on his ship and is heading toward Earth.”
“And where does that leave us now?”
Slowly Amadiro said, “By no means defeated, it seems to me. If we complete our project, we have won—Giskard or no Giskard. And we can complete it. Whatever Giskard can do with and to emotions, he can’t read thoughts. He might be able to tell when a wash of emotion crosses a human mind, or even distinguish one emotion from another, or change one to another, or induce sleep or amnesia—dull edged things like that. He cannot be sharp, however, cannot make out actual words or ideas.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“So said Vasilia.”
“She may not have known what she was talking about. She did not, after all, manage to control the robot, as she said she was sure of doing. That’s not much of a testimonial to her accuracy of understanding.”
“Yet I believe her in this. To actually be able to read thoughts would demand so much complexity in the positronic pathway pattern that it is totally unlikely that a child could have inserted it into the robot over twenty decades ago. It is actually far beyond even the present-day state of the art, Mandamus. Surely you must agree.”
“I would certainly think it was. And they’re going to Earth?”