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. Oh, my dear Mr.Baley.Idoubt that.Really.There s more to a robot than justhis appear  191Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 192ISAAC ASIMOVDr.Gerrigel froze in the middle of the word.Slowly, he turned to R.Daneel, and his pink facewent very pale. Oh, dear me, he whispered. Oh, dear me.He reached out one hand and touched R.Daneel scheek gingerly.R.Daneel did not move away butgazed at the roboticist calmly. Dear me, said Dr.Gerrigel, with what wasalmost a sob in his voice,  you are a robot. It took you a long time to realize that, saidBaley, dryly. I wasn t expecting it.I never saw one like this.Outer World manufacture? Yes, said Baley. It s obvious now.The way he holds himself.Themanner of his speaking.It is not a perfect imitation,Mr.Baley. It s pretty good, though, isn t it? Oh, it s marvelous.I doubt that anyone could rec-ognize the imposture at sight.I am very grateful toyou for having me brought face to face with him.MayI examine him? The roboticist was on his feet, eager.Baley put out a hand. Please, Doctor.In amoment.First, the matter of the murder, you know. Is that real, then? Dr.Gerrigel was bitterly dis-appointed and showed it. I thought perhaps that wasjust a device to keep my mind engaged and to seehow long I could be fooled by   It is not a device, Dr.Gerrigel.Tell me, now, inconstructing a robot as humanoid as this one, withthe deliberate purpose of having it pass as human, is192Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 193THE CAVES OF STEELit not necessary to make its brain possess propertiesas close to that of the human brain as possible? Certainly. Very well.Could not such a humanoid brain lackthe First Law? Perhaps it is left out accidentally.Yousay the theory is unknown.The very fact that it isunknown means that the constructors might set up abrain without the First Law.They would not knowwhat to avoid.Dr.Gerrigel was shaking his head vigorously. No.No.Impossible. Are you sure? We can test the Second Law, ofcourse  Daneel, let me have your blaster.Baley s eyes never left the robot.His own hand,well to one side, gripped his own blaster tightly.R.Daneel said calmly,  Here it is, Elijah, andheld it out, butt first.Baley said,  A plain-clothes man must never aban-don his blaster, but a robot has no choice but to obeya human. Except, Mr.Baley, said Dr.Gerrigel,  whenobedience involves breaking the First Law. Do you know, Doctor, that Daneel drew hisblaster on an unarmed group of men and women andthreatened to shoot? But I did not shoot, said Daneel. Granted, but the threat was unusual in itself, was-n t it, Doctor?Dr.Gerrigel bit his lip. I d need to know the exactcircumstances to judge.It sounds unusual. Consider this, then.R.Daneel was on the scene193Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 194ISAAC ASIMOVat the time of the murder, and if you omit the possi-bility of an Earthman having moved across opencountry, carrying a weapon with him, Daneel andDaneel alone of all the persons on the scene couldhave hidden the weapon. Hidden the weapon? asked Dr.Gerrigel. Let me explain.The blaster that did the killingwas not found.The scene of the murder was searchedminutely and it was not found.Yet it could not havevanished like smoke.There is only one place it couldhave been, only one place they would not havethought to look. Where, Elijah? asked R.Daneel.Baley brought his blaster into view, held its barrelfirmly in the robot s direction. In your food sac, he said. In your food sac,Daneel!194Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 19513.SHIFT TO THEMACHINE. That is not so, said R.Daneel, quietly. Yes? We ll let the Doctor decide.Dr.Gerrigel? Mr.Baley? The roboticist, whose glance hadbeen alternating wildly between the plain-clothesman and the robot as they spoke, let it come to restupon the human being. I ve asked you here for an authoritative analysisof this robot.I can arrange to have you use the labo-ratories of the City Bureau of Standards.If you needany piece of equipment they don t have, I ll get it foryou.What I want is a quick and definite answer andhang the expense and trouble.Baley rose.His words had emerged calmlyenough, but he felt a rising hysteria behind them.Atthe moment, he felt that if he could only seize Dr.Gerrigel by the throat and choke the necessary state-ments out of him, he would forego all science.He said,  Well, Dr.Gerrigel?Dr.Gerrigel tittered nervously and said,  My dearMr.Baley, I won t need a laboratory.195Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 196ISAAC ASIMOV Why not? asked Baley apprehensively.He stoodthere, muscles tense, feeling himself twitch. It s not difficult to test the First Law.I ve neverhad to, you understand, but it s simple enough.Baley pulled air in through his mouth and let it outslowly.He said,  Would you explain what you mean?Are you saying that you can test him here? Yes, of course.Look, Mr.Baley, I ll give you ananalogy.If I were a Doctor of Medicine and had totest a patient s blood sugar, I d need a chemical labo-ratory.If I needed to measure his basal metabolicrate, or test his cortical function, or check his genesto pinpoint a congenital malfunction, I d need elabo-rate equipment.On the other hand, I could checkwhether he were blind by merely passing my handbefore his eyes and I could test whether he were deadby merely feeling his pulse. What I m getting at is that the more importantand fundamental the property being tested, the sim-pler the needed equipment.It s the same in a robot.The First Law is fundamental.It affects everything.If it were absent, the robot could not react properly intwo dozen obvious ways.As he spoke, he took out a flat, black object whichexpanded into a small book-viewer.He inserted awell-worn spool into the receptacle.He then took outa stop watch and a series of white, plastic slivers thatfitted together to form something that looked like aslide rule with three independent movable scales.Thenotations upon it struck no chord of familiarity toBaley.196Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 197THE CAVES OF STEELDr.Gerrigel tapped his book-viewer and smiled alittle, as though the prospect of a bit of field workcheered him.He said,  It s my Handbook of Robotics.I nevergo anywhere without it.It s part of my clothes. Hegiggled self-consciously.He put the eyepiece of the viewer to his eyes andhis finger dealt delicately with the controls.Theviewer whirred and stopped, whirred and stopped. Built-in index, the roboticist said, proudly, hisvoice a little muffled because of the way in which theviewer covered his mouth. I constructed it myself.Itsaves a great deal of time.But then, that s not thepoint now, is it? Let s see.Umm, won t you moveyour chair near me, Daneel?R.Daneel did so.During the roboticist s prepara-tions, he had watched closely and unemotionally.Baley shifted his blaster.What followed confused and disappointed him.Dr.Gerrigel proceeded to ask questions and performactions that seemed without meaning, punctuated byreferences to his triple slide rule and occasionally tothe viewer [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]