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."3.THE CRISISDaneel and Giskard, with robotic courtesy, saw Mandamus and his robots offthe grounds of the establishment.Then, since they were outside, they touredthe grounds, made certain that the lesser robots were in their places, andtook note of the weather (cloudy and a bit cooler than seasonal).Daneel said, "Dr.Mandamus admitted openly that the Settler worlds are nowstronger than the Spacer worlds.I would not have expected him to do that."Giskard said, "Nor I.I was certain that the Settlers would increase instrength as compared with the Spacers because Elijah Baley had predicted itmany decades ago, but I could see no, way of determining when the fact wouldbecome obvious to the Auroran Council.It seemed to me that social inertiawould keep the Council firmly convinced of Spacer superiority long after thathad vanished, but I could not calculate for how long they would continue todelude themselves.""I am astonished that Partner Elijah foresaw this so long ago.""Human beings -have ways of thinking about human beings that we have not.HadGiskard been human, the remark might have been made with regret or envy, butsince he was a robot it was merely factual.He went on."I have tried to gain the knowledge, if not the way of thinking,by reading human history in great detail.Surely somewhere in the long tale ofhuman events, there must be buried the Laws of Humanics that are equivalent toour Three Laws of Robotics."Page 43ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlDaneel said, "Madam Gladia once told me that this hope was an impossibleone.""So that may be, friend Daneel, for though it seems to me such Laws ofHumanics must exist, I cannot find them Every generalization I try to make,however broad and simple, has its numerous exceptions.Yet if such Lawsexisted and if I could find them, I could understand human beings better andbe more confident that I am obeying the Three Laws in better fashion.""Since Partner Elijah understood human beings, he must have had someknowledge of the Laws of Humanics.""Presumably.But this he knew through something that human beings callintuition, a word I don't understand, signifying a concept I know nothing of.Presumably it lies beyond reason and I have only reason at my command."That and memory!Memory that did not work after the human fashion, of course.It lacked theimperfect recall, the fuzziness, the additions and subtractions dictated bywishful thinking and self-interest, to say nothing of the lingerings andlacunae and backtracking that can turn memory into hours-long daydreaming.It was robotic memory ticking off the events exactly as they had happened,but in vastly hastened fashion.The seconds reeled off in nanoseconds, so thatdays of events could be relived with such rapid precision as to introduce noperceptible gap in a conversation.As Giskard had done innumerable times before, he relived that visit to Earth,always seeking for understanding of Elijah Baley's casual ability to foreseethe future, always failing to find it.Earth!Fastolfe had come to Earth in an Auroran warship, with a full complement offellow passengers, both human and robot.Once in orbit, however, it was onlyFastolfe who took the module in for a landing.Injections had stimulated hisimmune mechanism and he wore the necessary gloves, coveralls, contact lenses,and nose plugs.He felt quite safe as a result, but no other Auroran waswilling to I go along as part of a delegation.This Fastolfe shrugged off, since it seemed to him (as he later explained toGiskard) that he would be more welcome if he came alone.A delegation woulddisagreeably remind Earth of the bad old days (to them) of Spacetown, whenSpacers had a permanent base on Earth and directly dominated the world.With him, Fastolfe brought Giskard, however.To have arrived without anyrobots would have been unthinkable, even for Fastolfe.To have arrived withPage 44ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlmore than one would have put a strain on the increasingly antirobot Earthmenhe hoped to see and with whom he intended to negotiate.To begin with, of course, he would meet with Baley, who would be his liaisonwith Earth and its people.That was the rational excuse for the meeting.Thereal excuse was simply that Fastolfe Wanted very much to see Baley again; hecertainly owed him enough.(That Giskard wanted to see Baley and that he very slightly tightened theemotion and impulse in Fastolfe's brain to bring that about, Fastolfe had noway of knowing-or even imagining.)Baley was waiting for them at the time of landing and with him was a smallgroup of Earth officials, so that there was a tedious passage of time duringwhich politeness and protocol had its innings.It was some hours before Baleyand Fastolfe could get away by themselves and it might not have happened thatsoon but for Giskard's quiet and unfelt interference- with just a touch at theminds of the more important of those officials who were distinctly bored [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]