Asimov's Future History Volume 5

by Isaac Asimov

  “Nevertheless, I may even owe you my life and it is important that you know I understand this. – And now, Giskard, what ought Ito do?”

  “Concerning what matter, sir?”

  “My mission is over. Dr. Fastolfe’s views are secure. Earth’s future may be assured. It would seem I have nothing more to do and yet there is the matter of Jander.”

  “I do not understand, sir.”

  “Well, it seems settled that he died by a chance shift of positronic potential in his brain, but Fastolfe admits the chance of that is infinitesimally small. Even with Amadiro’s activities, the chance, though possibly greater, would remain infinitesimally small. At least, so Fastolfe thinks. It continues to seem to me, then, that Jander’s death was one of deliberate roboticide. Yet I don’t dare raise this point now. I don’t want to unsettle matters that have been brought to such a satisfactory conclusion. I don’t want to put Fastolfe in jeopardy again. I don’t want to make Gladia unhappy. I don’t know what to do. I can’t talk to a human being about this, so I’m talking to you, Giskard.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I can always order you to erase whatever I have said and to remember it no more.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “In your opinion, what ought I to do?”

  Giskard said, “If there is a roboticide, sir, there must be someone capable of committing the act. Only Dr. Fastolfe is capable of committing it and he says he did not do it.”

  “Yes, we started with that situation. I believe Dr. Fastolfe and am quite certain he did not do it.”

  “Then how could there have been a roboticide, sir?”

  “Suppose that someone else knew as much about robots as Dr. Fastolfe does, Giskard.”

  Baley drew up his knees and clasped his hands around them. He did not look at Giskard and seemed lost in thought.

  “Who might that be, sir?” asked Giskard.

  And finally, Baley reached the crucial point.

  He said, “You, Giskard.”

  84.

  IF GISKARD HAD been human, he might have simply stared, silent and stunned; or he might have raged angrily; or shrunk back in terror; or had any of a dozen responses. Because he was a robot, he showed no sign of any emotion whatever and simply said, “Why do you say so, sir?”

  Baley said, “I am quite certain, Giskard, that you know exactly how I have come to this conclusion, but you will do me a favor if you allow me, in this quiet place and iii this bit of time before I must leave, to explain the matter for my own benefit. I would like to hear myself talk about it. And I would like you to correct me where I am wrong.”

  “By all means, sir.”

  “I suppose my initial mistake was to suppose that you are a less complicated and more primitive robot than Daneel is, simply because you look less human. A human being will always suppose that, the more human a robot is, the more advanced, complicated, and intelligent he will be. To be sure, a robot like you is easily designed and one like Daneel is a great problem for men like Amadiro and can be handled only by a robotics genius such as Fastolfe. However, the difficulty in designing Daneel lies, I suspect, in reproducing all the human aspects such as facial expression, intonation of voice, gestures and movements that are extraordinarily intricate but have nothing really to do with complexity of mind. Am I right?”

  “Quite right, sir.”

  “So I automatically underestimated you, as does everyone. Yet you gave yourself away even before we landed on Aurora. You remember, perhaps, that during the landing, I was overcome by an agoraphobic spasm and was, for a moment, even more helpless than I was last night in the storm.”

  “I do, sir.”

  “At the time, Daneel was in the cabin with me, while you were outside the door. I was falling into a kind of catatonic state, noiselessly, and he was, perhaps, not looking at me and so knew nothing of it. You were outside the cabin and yet it was you who dashed in and turned off the viewer I was holding. You got there first, ahead of Daneel, though his reflexes are as fast as yours, I’m sure – as he demonstrated when he prevented Dr. Fastolfe from striking me.”

  “Surely it cannot be that Dr. Fastolfe was striking you.”

  “He wasn’t. He was merely demonstrating Daneel’s reflexes. And yet, as I say, in the cabin you got there first. I was scarcely in condition to observe that fact, but I have been trained to observe and I am not put entirely out of action even by agoraphobic terror, as I showed last night. I did notice you were there first, though I tended to forget the fact. There is, of course, only one logical solution.”

  Baley paused, as though expecting Giskard to agree, but the robot said nothing.

  (In later years, this was what Baley pictured first when thinking of his stay on Aurora. Not the storm. Not even Gladia. It was, rather, the quiet time under the tree, with the green leaves against the blue sky, the mild breeze, the soft sound of animals, and Giskard opposite him with faintly glowing eyes.)

  Baley said, “It would seem that you could somehow detect my state of mind and, even through the closed door, tell that I was having a seizure of some sort. Or, to put it briefly and perhaps simplistically, you can read minds.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Giskard quietly.

  “And you can somehow influence minds, too. I believe you noted that I had detected this and you obscured it in my mind, so that I somehow did not remember or did not see the significance – if I did casually recall the situation. Yet you did not do that entirely efficiently, perhaps because your powers are limited –”

  Giskard said, “Sir, the First Law is paramount. I had to come to your rescue, although I quite realized that would give me away. And I had to obscure your mind minimally, in order not to damage it in any way.”

  Baley nodded. “You have your difficulties, I see. Obscured minimally – so I did remember it when my mind was sufficiently relaxed and could think by free association. Just before I lost consciousness in the storm, I knew you would find me first, as you had on the ship. You may have found me by infrared radiation, but every mammal and bird was radiating as well and that might be confusing – but you could also detect mental activity, even if I were unconscious, and that would help you to find me.”

  “It certainly helped,” said Giskard.

  “When I did remember, close to sleep or unconsciousness, I would forget again when fully conscious. Last night, however, I remembered for the third time and I was not alone. Gladia was with me and could repeat what I had said, which was ‘He was there first.’ And even then I could not remember the meaning, until a chance remark of Dr. Fastolfe’s led to a thought that worked its way past the obscuration. Then, once it dawned on me, I remembered other things. Thus, when I was wondering if I were really landing on Aurora, you assured me that our destination was Aurora before I actually asked. – I presume you allow no one to know of your mind – reading ability.”

  “That is true, sir.”

  “Why is that?”

  “My mind reading gives me a unique ability to obey the First Law, sir, so I value its existence. I can prevent harm to human beings far more efficiently. It seemed to me, however, that neither Dr. Fastolfe – nor any other human being – would long tolerate a mind – reading robot, so I keep the ability secret. Dr. Fastolfe loves to tell the legend of the mind – reading robot who was destroyed by Susan Calvin and I would not want him to duplicate Dr. Calvin’s feat.”

  “Yes, he told the legend to me. I suspect that he knows, subliminally, that you read minds or he wouldn’t harp on the legend so. And it is dangerous for him to do so, as far as you are concerned, I should think. Certainly, it helped put the matter in my mind,”

  “I do what I can to neutralize the danger without unduly tampering with Dr. Fastolfe’s mind. Dr. Fastolfe invariably stresses the legendary and impossible nature of the story when he tells it.”

  “Yes, I remember that, too. But if Fastolfe does not know you can read minds, it must be that you were not designed originally with these powers. How, then, do yo
u come to have them? No, don’t tell me, Giskard. Let me suggest something. Miss Vasilia was particularly fascinated with you when she was a young woman first becoming interested in robotics. She told me that she had experimented by programming you under Fastolfe’s distant supervision. Could it be that, at one time, quite by accident, she did something that gave you the power? Is that correct?”

  “That is correct, sir.”

  “And do you know what that something is?” “Yes, sir.”

  “Are you the only mind – reading robot that exists?”

  “So far, yes, sir. There will be others.”

  “If I asked you what it was that Dr. Vasilia did to you to give you such powers – or if Dr. Fastolfe did – would you tell us by virtue of the Second Law?”

  “No, sir, for it is my judgment that it would do you harm to know and my refusal to tell you under the First Law would take precedence. The problem would not arise, however, for I would know that someone was going to ask the question and give the order and I would remove the impulse to do so from the mind before it could be done.”

  “Yes,” said Baley. “Evening before last, as we were walking from Gladia’s to Fastolfe’s, I asked Daneel if he had had any contact with Jander during the latter’s stay with Gladia and he answered quite simply that he had not. I then turned to ask you the same question and, somehow, I never did. You quashed the impulse for me to do so, I take it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Because if I had asked, ‘you would have had to say that you knew him well at that time and you were not prepared to have me know that.”

  “I was not, sir.”

  “But during this period of contact with Jander, you knew he was being tested by Amadiro because, I presume, you could read Jander’s mind or detect his positronic potentials –”

  “Yes, sir, the same ability covers both robotic and human mental activity. Robots are far easier to understand.”

  “You disapproved of Amadiro’s activities because you agreed with Fastolfe on the matter of settling the Galaxy.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Why did you not stop Amadiro? Why did you not remove from his mind the impulse to test Jander?”

  Giskard said, “Sir, I do not lightly tamper with minds. Amadiro’s resolve was so deep and complex that, to remove it, I would have had to do much – and his mind is an advanced and important one that I would be reluctant to damage. I let the matter continue for a great while, during which I pondered on which action would best fulfill my First Law needs. Finally, I decided on the proper manner to correct the situation. It was not an easy decision.”

  “You decided to immobilize Jander before Amadiro could work out the method for designing a true humaniform robot. You knew how to do so, since you had, over the years, gained a perfect understanding of Fastolfe’s theories from Fastolfe’s mind. Is that right?”

  “Exactly, sir.”

  “So that Fastolfe was not the only one, after all, expert enough to immobilize Jander.”

  “In a sense, he was, sir. My own ability is merely the reflection – or the extension – of his.”

  “But it will do. Did you not see that this immobilization would place Fastolfe in great danger? That he would be the natural suspect? Did you plan on admitting your action and revealing your abilities if that were necessary to save him?”

  Giskard said, “I did indeed see that Dr. Fastolfe would be in a painful situation, but I did not intend to admit my guilt. I had hoped to utilize the situation as a wedge for getting you to Aurora.”

  “Getting me here? Was that your idea?” Baley felt rather stupefied.

  “Yes, sir. With your permission, I would like to explain.”

  Baley said, “Please do.”

  Giskard said, “I knew of you from Miss Gladia and from Dr. Fastolfe, not only from what they said but from what was in their minds. I learned of the situation on Earth. Earthmen, it was clear, live behind walls, which they find difficult to escape from, but it was just as clear to me that Aurorans live behind walls, too.

  “Aurorans live behind walls made of robots, who shield them from all the vicissitudes of life and who, in Amadiro’s plans, would build up shielded societies to wall up Aurorans settling new worlds. Aurorans also live behind walls made up of their own extended lives, which forces them to overvalue individuality and keeps them from pooling their scientific resources. Nor do they indulge in the rough – and – tumble of controversy, but, through their Chairman, demand a short – circuiting of all uncertainty and that decisions on solutions be reached before problems are aired. They could not be bothered with actually thrashing out best solutions. What they wanted were quiet solutions.

  “The Earthman’s walls are crude and literal, so that their existence is obtrusive and obvious – and there are always some who long to escape. The Aurorans’ walls are immaterial and aren’t even seen as walls, so that none can even conceive of escaping. It seemed to me, then, that it must be Earthmen and not Aurorans – or any other Spacers – who must settle the Galaxy and establish what will someday become a Galactic Empire.

  “All this was Dr. Fastolfe’s reasoning and I agreed with it. Dr. Fastolfe was, however, satisfied with the reasoning, while I, given my own abilities, could not be. I had to examine the mind of at least one Earthman directly, in order that I might check my conclusions, and you were the Earthman I thought I could bring to Aurora. The immobilization of Jander served both to stop Amadiro and to be the occasion for your visit. I pushed Miss Gladia very slightly to have her suggest your coming to Dr. Fastolfe; I pushed him in turn, very slightly, to have him suggest it to the Chairman; and I pushed the Chairman, very slightly, to have him agree. Once you arrived, I studied you and was pleased with what I found.”

  Giskard stopped speaking and became robotically impassive again.

  Baley frowned. “It occurs to me that I have earned no credit in what I have done here. You must have seen to it that I found my way to the truth.”

  “No, sir. On the contrary. I placed barriers in your way – reasonable ones, of course. I refused to let you recognize my abilities, even though I was forced to give myself away. I made sure that you felt dejection and despair at odd times. I encouraged you to risk the open, in order to study your responses. Yet you found your way through and over all these obstacles and I was pleased.

  “I found that you longed for the walls of your City but recognized that you must learn to do without them. I found that you suffered from the view of Aurora from space and from your exposure to the storm, but that neither prevented you from thinking nor drove you from your problem. I found that you accept your shortcomings and your brief life – and that you do not dodge controversy.”

  Baley said, “How do you know I am representative of Earth – people generally?”

  “I know you are not. But from your mind, I know there are some like you and we will build with those. I will see to it – and now that I know clearly the path that must be followed, I will prepare other robots like myself – and they will see to it, too.”

  Baley said suddenly, “You mean that mind – reading robots will come to Earth?”

  “No, I do not. And you are right to be alarmed. Involving robots directly will mean the construction of the very walls that are dooming Aurora and the Spacer worlds to paralysis. Earthmen will have to settle the Galaxy without robots of any kind. It will mean difficulties, dangers, and harm without measure – events that robots would labor to prevent if they were present – but, in the end, human beings will be better off for having worked on their own. And perhaps someday – some long – away day in the future – robots can intervene once more. Who can tell?”

  Baley said curiously, “Do you see the future?”

  “No, sir, but studying minds as I do, I can tell dimly that there are laws that govern human behavior as the Three Laws of Robotics govern robotic behavior; and with these it may be that the future will be dealt with, after a fashion – someday. The human laws are far more compl
icated than the Laws of Robotics are and I do not have any idea as to how they may be organized. They may be statistical in nature, so that they might not be fruitfully expressed except when dealing with huge populations. They may be very loosely binding, so that they might not make sense unless those huge populations are unaware of the operation of those laws.”

  “Tell me, Giskard, is this what Dr. Fastolfe refers to as the future science of ‘psychohistory’?”

  “Yes, sir. I have gently inserted it into his mind, in order that the process of working it out begin. It will be needed someday, now that the existence of the Spacer worlds as a long – lived robotized culture is coming to an end and a new wave of human expansion by short – lived human beings – without robots – will be beginning.

  “And now” – Giskard rose to his feet –” I think, sir, that we must go to Dr. Fastolfe’s establishment and prepare for your leavetaking. All that we have said here will not be repeated, of course.”

  “It is strictly confidential, I assure you,” said Baley.

  “Indeed,” said Giskard calmly. “But you need not fear the responsibility of having to remain silent. I will allow you to remember, but you will never have the urge to repeat the matter not the slightest.”

  Baley lifted his eyebrows in resignation over that and said, “One thing, though, Giskard, before you clamp down on me. Will you see to it that Gladia is not disturbed on this planet, that she is not treated unkindly because she is a Solarian and has accepted a robot as her husband, and – and that she will accept the offers of Gremionis?”

  “I heard your final conversation with Miss Gladia, sir, and I understand. It will he taken care of. Now, sir, may I take my leave of you while no other is watching?” Giskard thrust out his hand in the most human gesture Baley had ever seen him make.

  Baley took it. The fingers were hard and cool in his grip. “Good – bye – friend Giskard.”

  Giskard said, “Good – bye, friend Elijah, and remember that, although people apply the phrase to Aurora, it is, from this point on, Earth itself that is the true World of the Dawn.”