Chapter 13 Chapter 13 The First Law of Robotics

"It's not like that," said R. Daniel quietly. "Really? Why don't we let Dr. Gary Chew decide?" As they talked, the roboticist looked at this and that.Finally, his gaze rested on Bailey: "Ah, Mr. Bailey?" "I've invited you here to give you an authoritative analysis of this robot. I can arrange for your use of the City Bureau of Standards laboratory. If you need any equipment and they don't have it, I can get it for you .What I want is a quick and definitive answer, at no cost and trouble." First Law of Robots Bailey stood up.His voice sounded very calm, but he knew that behind this calm, there was a hysterical emotion ready to go.He even felt that if he could strangle Dr. Gary Qiu's neck and force him to give the answer he wanted, then he would really do it, regardless of whether he was scientific or not.

"Well, Doctor?" he said. Dr. Gary Chew gave an uneasy laugh. "My dear Mr. Bailey, I don't need a laboratory." "Why?" Bailey asked worriedly.He stood there, his muscles tensed, and he seemed to be shaking. "Testing the first law is not difficult. You know, I never had to test the first law, but it's easy enough to do." The First Law of Robots Bailey opened his mouth and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Can you clarify, please? You mean, you can test it here?" "Yes, of course. You see, Mr. Bailey, let me give you an analogy. If I were a doctor and I wanted to test a patient's blood sugar, then I would need a chemistry lab. If I wanted to measure his basal metabolism rate, test his cortical function, or track down the cause of a congenital abnormality, then I need sophisticated equipment. On the other hand, if I want to know if a patient is blind, I just move my palm in front of his eyes. ;If I want to know whether a patient is dead or not, I need only feel for his pulse.

"What I mean is that the more important and basic the characteristic to be tested, the simpler the testing equipment required. The same principle applies to robots.The first law is a very important and basic thing, it can affect every link.Without the First Law, robots would react anomalously in many ways. " The First Law of Robotics, he said, took out a flat black object that, when stretched, became a small reading glass.He put an old roll of film in the slot, then took out a computer and several strips of white plastic.He combined these plastic sheets into a movable slide rule with three different scales.Bailey couldn't read the marks and symbols on it.

Dr. Gary Chew tapped his reading glass and smiled, as if doing some practical work would cheer him up. "This is my robot manual, I take it with me wherever I go, like clothes." He said with a shy smile. Gary Chew held the reading glass close to his eyes, and manipulated the controls with his fingers deftly.The reading glass whirred and stopped, then whirred and stopped. "Index of fixtures," said the roboticist triumphantly.His voice was a little muffled because the reading glass blocked his mouth. "I made it myself and it'll save me a lot of time. But it's not important right now, is it? Let me see... um, um, could you please move the chair closer, Daniel?"

R. Daniel moved closer to him.R. Daniel watched the roboticist with indifferent concentration as he made his preparations. Bailey moved the blaster away. What happened next left Bailey puzzled and disappointed. Dr. Gary Joe began to ask R. Daniel some seemingly meaningless questions, and then made some seemingly meaningless actions.From time to time he looked at the slide rule, and from time to time he looked at the reading glass. One of the questions he asked was; "If I have two nephews with an age difference of five years and the younger one is a girl, will the older one be a boy or a girl?"

R. Daniel replied: "According to the data, it is impossible to answer." Bailey thought, what else can I say but this answer? Gary Qiu's reaction was to look at the stopwatch, and then stretched out his right hand as far as possible, "Can you touch the tip of my middle finger with the third finger of your left hand, please?" Daniel did as he was told without hesitation. The quiz on Gary Chubb was completed in fifteen minutes.He silently used the slide rule to do the calculation one last time, and then pulled the slide rule apart a few times.Then he put away the computer, took the manual out of the reading glass, and folded the reading glass again.

"That's it?" Bailey said, frowning. "right." "Isn't that ridiculous? You're not asking any questions about the First Law." "Oh, my dear Mr. Bailey, wouldn't you accept it if the doctor tapped your knee with a mallet to see if it would jerk and see if you were nervous? Wouldn't it surprise you if a doctor looked into your eyes to see if you were taking an alkaloid based on how your glare reacted to light?" "Okay. But so what? What exactly is your judgment?" "Daniel is fully equipped with the first law!"

The roboticist nodded emphatically in the absolute affirmative. "You're wrong." Bailey's voice was hoarse. To Bailey's surprise, Dr. Gary's body suddenly froze, and he straightened even more than before.He was straight as a plank, and his eyes were narrowed in anger. "Are you teaching me how to do things?" "I'm not saying that your ability is not good." Bailey stretched out a big hand in a pleading gesture, "I mean, is it possible for you to make mistakes? You said it yourself, no one knows about harmful sex robots." Principle. A blind person can read with a Braille or a sound liner, but, assuming we do not know Braille or a sound liner, we say that a person has eyes to see when he knows the contents of a film book , is it impossible to make a mistake?"

"Well," the roboticist became amiable again, "I see what you mean. However, a blind person cannot actually read with his eyes, and that's what I'm experimenting with. Believe me, whether a harmful robot may or Impossible to do, there is no doubt that R. Daniel has the first law." "Isn't it possible for him to lie when he answered the question?" Bailey knew he was struggling in vain. "Of course it is impossible. This is the difference between robots and humans. No mathematical method known today can completely analyze the human brain or the brain of any mammal. Therefore, even if there is no reaction, it is a reaction. And As for robots, their brains can be analyzed completely, otherwise they cannot be manufactured. We know what kind of response it must have under what stimulus. Robots cannot cheat when answering questions. In the brains of robots, there is no There is no such thing as what you call fake."

"That being the case, let's talk about an example. R. Daniel did point his gun at a group of humans, I saw it with my own eyes. I was there at the time. If he had the first law, then when he pointed his gun at a group of humans, even if he didn't open it , This behavior has already violated the first law. Could there be a problem with his circuit? However, he seems to have no problem, and he is completely normal afterwards." Gary Qiu rubbed his chin and pondered. "Well, that's a little out of the ordinary." "That's not the case." R. Daniel said suddenly: "Partner Ilya, can you take a look at my blaster gun?"

Bailey looked down at the blaster in his left hand. "Open it," said R. Daniel, "and check." Bailey weighed the safety issue, slowly put his own on the table beside him, and then quickly opened the robot's blasting gun. "Empty!" He froze. "There is no filler inside," R. Daniel said. "If you check carefully, you will find that there has never been any filler inside. Moreover, this blaster has no firing device, so it cannot be used." "Are you pointing an empty handful at the crowd?" "I have to have a blaster gun, otherwise I don't look like a plainclothes detective." R. Daniel said, "However, if I bring a loaded one and can fire it, it may cause me to be killed by accident. Injury to human beings, of course, this kind of thing can't happen. I wanted to explain these things to you, but you were so angry that you didn't want to listen to me." Bai Lai looked at the useless blaster in dismay, and said in a low voice, "I think that's it, Dr. Gary Chew, thank you for your help." Bailey sent for lunch, but when it came (yeast stone fruit cake, shortbread, and a large piece of fried chicken), he just stared at it with no appetite. Waves of thoughts churned in his mind.The lines of his long face turned into sad lines. He lives in a world that is not real, a world that is cruel but not upside down. How did all this happen?The past few days seemed like a vague and impossible dream, in which he retreated, retreated, and returned to that moment.The moment he walks into Julie Enderby's office, he's suddenly plunged into a nightmare that's a mixture of murder and robots. God!This nightmare had only begun fifty hours ago. He had been determined to find answers in the space city.He has accused R. Daniel twice, once accusing him of impersonating a robot, and another time, although he admitted that he was a robot, he accused him of being a murderer.Both times it failed, and his reasoning was completely untenable. He was forced back.Reluctantly, he had to think of New York.Since last night he had been afraid to think about New York.Certain questions were knocking at the door of his consciousness, but he wouldn't listen.He couldn't listen. Even if he heard it, he couldn't answer it.Oh my God, he didn't want to face those answers. "Ilya, Ilya!" Someone pushed his shoulder hard. Bailey woke up with a start: "Uh, what's the matter, Phil?" The plainclothes detective Phil Norris of C-5 sat down, leaned forward and stared at Bailey: "What's the matter? Why do you always look like you've lost your mind recently? You're sitting here, your eyes are so wide open, I still don't know. I thought you were dead!" Norris stroked his thin pale blond hair, and his eyes were set close together, looking at the cold lunch on Bailey's table, with a greedy expression on his face. "Chicken!" he said. "It's not easy to eat chicken these days. You probably have to have a doctor's prescription to eat it." "Eat something," Bailey said listlessly. Out of politeness and face, Norris held back. "Oh, uh, I'm going to eat soon too, you can keep it right, what the hell have you been up to with the chief lately?" "What?" Norris pretended to be indifferent, but his hands revealed nervousness. "Say it! You know what I mean. You've been hanging out with him since he came back from a business trip. What's the matter? Got a promotion?" Bailey frowned. Reality came back, and office politics was powerful.Norris, who was of his own class, would of course be on the lookout for any sign of Bailey's favor with his superiors. "No one's going to be promoted," said Bailey. "Believe me, nothing, nothing. If you wanted it, I'd give you the Chief. God! Please take him!" Norris said, "Don't get me wrong. I don't care if you get promoted. I'm just saying, if you have influence with the chief, why don't you do the kid a favor?" "What child?" The answer is right there.Vincent Barrett, the boy who had been replaced by R. Sammy, was walking toward them from an unnoticed corner of the office.He was pinching a hat uneasily in his hands, with a forced smile on his face, and the skin on his high cheekbones tugged. "Hi, Mr. Bailey." "Oh, hi, Vincent. How are you?" "Not very well, Mr. Bailey." There was longing in his eyes.This, Bailey thought, is what is really called distraught, like the result of a half-dead being deprived of his status. But what can I do for you?Bailey thought angrily, almost blurting out. "Sorry, boy," he said.Otherwise what could he say? "I've been thinking that there might be some chance." Norris leaned closer to Bailey's ear and said, "Someone must stop this kind of thing. Do you know? Chen Luo is also going to get rid of it now." "What?" "You do not know?" "I don't know. Damn it, Chen Luo has been doing it for ten years, and he is a C-3." "Yes, but a machine with arms and legs could do his job too. God knows who's next." Vincent did not notice their whispered conversation.He was thinking about his own business. "Mr. Bailey?" he said. "Well, Vincent?" "You know what they're talking about? They say TV dancer Layron Millan is actually a robot." "That's ridiculous." "Really? I heard people say that they can make a robot that is exactly like a human, using a special plastic material." Bailey thought of R. Daniel with guilt.He shook his head, speechless. "I'm going to look around. Do you think anyone would mind?" said the kid. "It makes me feel better to see the old places." "Go, boy." The boy walked away, and Bailey and Norris watched his back. "It seems that the medievalists were right," Norris said. "You mean back to the land, Phil?" "No, I mean robots. Back to the land. Ha! Old Earth has an infinite future. We don't need robots, not at all." Bailey murmured: "Eight billion people, and the uranium is running out! What is an infinite future?" "So what if we run out of uranium? Anyway, we can import uranium, or find another way to dispose of it. Human beings are unstoppable. Our greatest resource is creativity, and our creativity can never be exhausted. Elijah," Norris said more and more. "For example, we can use solar energy, which can be used for billions of years. We can build a space station in the orbit of Mercury to store energy. We can use direct light to send energy to the earth." It wasn't the first time Bailey had heard of such a plan.The extremists of the purists in the scientific community have spent at least a hundred and fifty years thinking about this concept, and the only difference is that they have not been able to experiment.Because so far, it is still impossible for human beings to direct the light beam to a distance of 800 million kilometers, and at the same time keep the light beam tight and not scattered, and the effect will not disappear. Bailey voiced these sentiments. Norris replied: "When it is necessary, it can be done. What are you worried about?" Bailey pictured in his mind a picture of an earth with infinite energy.The population can continue to increase.Yeast farms and hydroponics can be expanded.Energy is the only indispensable thing.Mineral raw materials can be obtained from uninhabitable planets in the solar system.If the water source is also difficult, more water can be retrieved from Jupiter's moons. Damn, I almost forgot, you can also freeze the oceans, dig them out piece by piece and put them into space, and they can orbit the earth like ice satellites.The ice cubes placed in space can be used at any time, and the empty ocean means more usable land and more living space.Humans can use the methane atmosphere on Titan and the frozen oxygen on Ambrill to maintain and increase the carbon and oxygen content on Earth. The population of the planet could grow to a trillion or two trillion.why not?Didn't everyone think that it was impossible to increase the population to the current eight billion?Even, at one time, everyone thought that the population increase to one billion was simply unthinkable.Since the Middle Ages, there have been Malthusian doomsday prophecies in every generation. The prophecies say that the earth will face a crisis of population explosion, but every prophecy has not been fulfilled. But what would Fastoff say?A world with a trillion people?Of course it is possible!But they have to rely on imported water and air to survive, and they have to rely on some complex storage facilities 800 million kilometers away to supply energy. How incredible is this precarious situation.At any moment, as long as the operation of the entire solar system fails slightly, the earth will inevitably be destroyed. "In my opinion, it's easier to transport the excess population out of the earth." Bailey blurted out, but he was talking to himself, not to Phil. "Who's going to want us?" Norris said casually, not seriously. "Any uninhabited planet." Norris stood up and patted Baley on the shoulder. "Ilya, eat your chicken quickly and get back to normal. Don't be so lost." He finished smiling and walked away. Bailey looked at his back and twitched the corner of his mouth.Needless to say, Norris was going to spread the word and the office gossips (every office has them) were going to gossip behind Bailey's back for weeks. .However, that's good, at least he could temporarily put aside things like Vincent, the robot, or being deprived of his status just now. Bailey sighed, picked up a fork and picked up a piece of cold, fried chicken that was old and tough. He had finished the last of the sourdough stone fruit cake when R. Daniel was leaving his desk (which he had been assigned that morning) and coming over to Bailey. "How?" Bailey looked at him a little uncomfortably. R. Daniel said: "The director is not in the office, and I don't know when he will be back. I told R. Sammy that we are going to use the director's office, but he won't let anyone in except the director." "Why are we using his office?" "Be more stealthy. You must agree that we have to plan our next move? After all, you don't want to give up on the investigation, do you?" Indeed, this was exactly what Bailey wanted to do most, but he couldn't say it.He stood up and walked towards Julier's office. After entering the director's office, Bailey said, "Okay, tell me, Daniel, what's the matter." The robot said, "Partner Elijah, something has been wrong with you since last night. There has been a noticeable change in your mental atmosphere." A terrible thought popped into Bailey's mind. "Are you telepathic?" he called. At this moment, he is annoyed and confused, and he has become irrational. "No, of course not," said R. Daniel. Bailey's sense of panic was gone. "Then what do you mean by my mental atmosphere?" "I'm just describing a feeling, a feeling you didn't tell me." "What does it feel like?" "It's hard to explain, Elijah. You know, my original design was to study human psychology for those of us in the space city." "Yeah, you just installed an extra set of justice-driven circuits to suit detective work." Bailey didn't hide his sarcasm. "Exactly, Ilya. So my original design hasn't changed much. I was designed to do brainwave analysis." "Analyze brain waves?" "Yes. Given a suitable receiver, the work can be done with a single scan, without direct contact with electrodes. Is this principle not yet used on Earth?" Bailey didn't know. He ignored the question and asked cautiously: "If you measure brain waves, what can you measure?" "It's not thoughts, Ilya. I can read a little about feelings, but most importantly, I can analyze a person's temperament, underlying motives, and state of mind. For example, I can determine that in a murder case Under the circumstances at that time, the director would not kill people." "Because you said so, they took him off the list of suspects?" "Yes, it's quite safe to do so. I'm an extremely delicate machine in this respect." "Wait!" Bailey suddenly remembered something, "Director Enderby doesn't know that his brain waves have been analyzed, does he?" "Why embarrass him?" "So you just stand there and watch him. No machines. No electrodes. No styli and graphs." "Of course. I am a fully functional analytical machine." Bailey bit his lower lip in anger and frustration.Originally, this was the only remaining contradiction, the only loophole. In order to attribute the crime to the space city, even if the hope of success is slim, it can still be attacked through this loophole. R. Daniel once told him that the director had done brain wave analysis.An hour later, Julier frankly denied to him that he knew the term.He originally wanted to find clues from this contradiction.Anyone who has undergone brainwave testing in the case of suspected murder will remember this overwhelming experience for millions of years. Anyone who has experienced this experience must know what brainwave analysis is. But now, this contradiction has disappeared.The director had indeed done a brainwave analysis, but he didn't realize it himself. R. Daniel was telling the truth; the Chief was telling the truth. "Okay," Bailey said bluntly, "what does my brain wave analysis tell you?" "You are very upset." "Oh, what a discovery. Of course I'm annoyed!" "To be clear, your annoyance is caused by conflicting motives in your heart. On the one hand, based on professional ethics, you want to investigate the conspiracy of those earthlings who surrounded us last night. On the other hand, you There is an equally strong incentive to leave it alone. At least, the electrical fields of your brain cells have clearly revealed the data." "My brain cells, bullshit!" Bailey was furious. "Listen, I'm telling you now, there is no point in investigating your so-called conspiracy group. It has nothing to do with the murder. I thought there might be Relationship, I admit it. In the restaurant yesterday, I did think we were in danger. But what happened? They followed us out and got lost in the trail very quickly, that's all. It wasn't a well-organized operation. Also Not the behavior of a desperate man. My son found out where we were with no trouble. He just spoke to the bureau and found out where we were without even identifying ourselves. Those great conspirators If you really want to hurt us, you can find us just as easily." "Didn't they look for it?" "Obviously, no. If they were going to start a riot, they could have started it in the shoe store. Yet they meekly backed down from the threat of a man and a blaster. A robot and a blaster ...if they already see you're a robot, then they won't back down at all, they must know you can't drive. So, they are just some medievalists, a bunch of harmless lunatics. Of course you won't know, But I should know. If this job hadn't messed with my mind, I should have. I tell you, I know those people, and I understand why they became Medievalists. They're just A group of mild and dreamy people, just because they feel that the life in front of them is too hard, so they will get lost in an old ideal world that never existed. If you can analyze a movement like an analyst If you analyze the brain waves, you will find that they can't kill people just like Julie Enderby." R. Daniel replied blankly: "I can't fully agree with what you said." "What's the meaning?" "Your change of opinion was too sudden, and your statements were contradictory. You had scheduled a meeting with Dr. Gary Chew yesterday hours before dinner, and you didn't know I had a food sac at the time, so it was impossible to suspect To me. So, why did you contact him?" "Even at that time, I already doubted you." "Also, you talked while you were sleeping last night." Bailey opened his eyes wide: "What did I say?" "Just called 'Jessie' a few times, I think you meant your wife." Bailey relaxed his muscles, but his voice was still unsteady: "I had a nightmare. Do you know what a nightmare is?" "Of course I don't have any dreaming experience, so I don't understand. But according to the dictionary's explanation, nightmares are bad dreams." "Do you know what dreams are?" "I only know the definition in the dictionary. The so-called dream is a hallucination of real experience produced after your consciousness is temporarily suspended and you enter sleep." "Well, I accept that. It's just a hallucination, but sometimes hallucinations seem real. Well, I dreamed that my wife was in danger. People have dreams like that, and I call her name. This kind of Things are also commonplace. Anyway, you just trust me." "Of course I do. But it reminds me of another thing. How did Jessie find out I'm a robot?" Sweat began to form on Bailey's forehead again. "Let's stop talking about it, shall we? Anyway, rumors..." "Partner Elijah, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but in fact there are no rumors. If there were any, the whole of New York City would have been in turmoil today. I have checked the reports obtained by the bureau, and all places are peaceful. There are no rumors going around. So how did your wife find out?" "My God! What are you trying to say? Do you think my wife is..." "That's right, Ilya." Bailey clasped his hands tightly. "She's not! Let's not talk about that anymore." "That's not quite your style, Ilya. You have accused me of being a murderer twice in order to carry out your mission." "So you're taking revenge on me like this?" "I don't quite understand what you mean by revenge. You doubt me, of course I agree. You have your reasons. Although it turns out that your reasons are wrong, they are also very likely to be right. The same reason, There is also strong evidence that your wife is involved." "Suspicion of what? She's a murderer? Damn it! Jessie won't hurt the people she hates the most. There's no way she's going out of town. There's no way she... dude! If you weren't a robot, I'd At once……" "I mean, she's suspected of being part of a conspiracy. I think she should be questioned." "Don't even think about it! You're dreaming! Listen now, the Medievalists don't want to exterminate, that's not how they do it. They just want you to leave the city. There's no doubt about it. They want to use a psychological tactic to kill It's done, so they try to make life difficult for you and me. Because I'm with you, so they leak the news to Jessie. It's too easy to find out that Jessie is my wife. Jessie is like All humans don't like robots alike, and she wouldn't let me work with a robot when she thought it would be dangerous for me to be with them. And they must have hinted at her as well. Tell you the truth, they It worked. Jessie begged me all night to drop the case or try to get you out of town." "That's right," said R. Daniels. "You have a very strong urge to protect your wife from interrogation. It seems to me that you don't quite believe it yourself." .” "What do you think you are?" Bailey was furious. "You are not a criminal police officer at all. You are just a machine, a brain wave analysis machine similar to the brain imaging machine in our building. You have a head, a You have hands, feet, and can talk, but you're just a machine. Putting a crappy circuit on you doesn't mean you'll be a detective. What do you know? I advise you to keep your mouth shut and let me Let's analyze the case!" The robot said calmly, "I think you'd better keep your voice down, Ilya. Maybe I'm not a detective like you, but I'd like to remind you of one small thing." "I'm not interested in listening to you." "Listen to me, Ilya. If I'm wrong, you can correct me. It won't hurt. What I'm trying to say is that you left the room to contact Jessie last night when I suggested you call Your son is going, but you said that according to the customs of the people on earth, a father will not send his son to take risks. So, is it customary for a mother to ask her son to go to a dangerous place?" "No, of course." Bailey shut up as soon as he opened his mouth. "You see what I mean," said R. Daniel. "Under normal circumstances, if Jessie was concerned about your safety and wanted to inform you, she would have come at her own risk and would not have called your son. She The reason why Bentley was called here means that she felt that it was safe for Bentley to come forward, but not for herself. If she didn't know the people in the conspiracy organization, she would have no worries about safety or insecurity. At least, she There will be no reason to consider security issues. Also, if she is a member of the conspiracy organization, then she will understand that she must understand, Ilya will be recognized and watched. And what about Bentley , he may pass unnoticed." "Okay, wait a minute," Bailey felt really uncomfortable, "this kind of reasoning is too unreasonable, but..." Bailey was interrupted. The semaphore on the director's desk flickered like crazy. R. Daniel waited for Bailey to continue, but Bailey just looked at the signal light, looking helpless. R. Daniel approached the intercom: "What's the matter?" R. Sammy's voice came vaguely: "A lady wanted to see Elijah. I told her Elijah was busy, but she refused to go. She said her name was Jessie." "Let her in," R. Daniel said quietly.He looked up, and his expressionless brown eyes met Bale's panicked gaze.