I Robot

1- Doctor Susan Calvin-Robot-psychologist

The Three Laws of Robotics
1.A robot must not harm a human. And it must not allow a human to be harmed.
2.A robot must obey a human’s order, unless that order conflicts with the First Law.
3.A robot must protect itself, unless this protection conflicts with the First or Second Laws.

I looked at my notes and I did not like them. I had come toU.S. Robots in New York. I was going to talk to the famous robot- psychologist, Doctor Susan Calvin, and write an article about her. But three days had passed, and I only had facts about Dr Calvin’s Working life. They weren’t enough. I wanted to know her thoughts and feelings about the development of robots.
Susan Calvin was born in 1982. This was the same year that Lawrence Robertson started thecompany, U.S. Robots. At the age of twenty, Susan had watched Dr Alfred Lanning demonstrate the first robot that was able to talk and move. The robot, which had been built to work on Mercury, was a large and ugly machine.
Susan was a serious, intelligent girl, with a plain face. She behaved coldly toward the people, and things, around her. But a she watched the robot and listened to Dr Lanning, shebegan to feel a little excited.
Until 2002, computers were used for robots’ “brains”. Then a few years later, Dr Robertson invented the positronic brain. After this, Susan designed positronics brains herself. In 2007, Susan joined U.S Robots. She was the company’s robot-psichologist. For fifty years, she worked with robots. She studied how their minds worked. And she saw ascientists developrobots that were more intelligent and more powerful. Now she was seventy-five, and her working life with U.S. Robots was finished. She was retiring.
This was the information that I had for my article. But I wanted more personal facts about the doctor.
“Dr Calvin,” I said, smiling at her. “Please tell me about your own experiences with robots. I want to know about you and your life with robots. Iwant to hear your own story.
Susan Calvin did not smile at me. I do not think that she ever smiles. But she did not look angry. “How ald are you?” she asked suddenly. Her sharp, intelligent eyes started at me.
“Thirty-two” I replied.
“Then you don’t remember a time without robots,” she said. “For thousands of years, humans lived alone in the Solar System. But now we’re no longer alone. Now, wehave robots to help us. They’re stronger, more faithful, and more useful beings than humans. Have you ever thought of that?”
“No, I haven’t,” I replied.
“You look at a robot, and you see a machine. A machine of metal and electricity,” she said. “But you haven’t worked with robots, so you don’t know them. They’re cleaner and better than we are.”
“Please tell me you stories,” I salid. “TheInterplanetary Press sends it news to more than three billion people in the Solar System. They should know what you can tell them about robots.”
But the robot-psychologist was not listening to me. She was thinking about the past. “Fifty years ago, U.S. Robots did make robots that were used on Earth,” she said. “No one on Earth has a robot now. But I remember the case of a robot named Robbie. He was takenapart, one year before I joined the company. By that time, he was out-of-date.”
She stopped speaking for a few seconds. But I did not say anything. Finally, she continued.
“Robbie had no voice. He was a non-speaking robot,” Calvin said. “Robbie was made to take care of children. He was a nanny…”

2- Robbie

“Ninety-eight! Ninety-nine! One hundred!” Gloria was standing by a tree as sheshouted the numbers. She opened her eyes and looked around. She could not see Robbie anywhere. She slowly moved away from the three.
“Maybe he went into the house,” the little girl thought. “That’s wrong. He’s cheating. He shouldn’t play the game that way. I’ve told him lots of times.”
Gloria began to walk toward the building. She did not hear the sounds until it was too late. CLUMP-CLUMP-CLUMP....