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Herbie
The central robot in “Little Lost Robot.” Nestor 10 goes missing after receiving instructions from Gerald Black that he “go lose [himself].” Thus, Nestor 10 follows this directive and hides in a room with 62 other robots that look identical to him. Losing him is particularly troubling to Calvin because he had been programmed with a weakened First Law, so that he does not have to act if he sees a human being that might come to harm through his inaction. Nestor 10 starts to prove his superiority over the humans when Calvin is unable to find him after several experimental trials and interviews. Even though he is still following the directive of the Second Law, Calvin becomes increasingly concerned that Nestor 10 has gone beyond the control of humans in his desperation to remain lost. Calvin is only able to find him upon learning that he has advanced physics knowledge, and she uses this advantage against him in order to identify him. Ultimately, her fears about weakening the First Law prove to be correct, because when he realizes he has been found, he attempts to attack Calvin, demonstrating the necessity of the First Law to protect humans from their creations.
Nestor 10 Quotes in I, Robot
The I, Robot quotes below are all either spoken by Nestor 10 or refer to Nestor 10. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Little Lost Robot
Quotes
“All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resents domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger. Physically, and, to an extent, mentally, a robot—any robot—is superior to human beings. What makes him slavish, then? Only the First Law! […]”
“Susan,” said Bogert, with an air of sympathetic amusement. “I’ll admit that this Frankenstein Complex you’re exhibiting has a certain justification—hence the First Law in the first place. But the Law, I repeat and repeat, has not been removed—merely modified.”
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“That he himself could only identify wave lengths by virtue of the training he had received at Hyper Base, under mere human beings, was a little too humiliating to remember for just a moment. To the normal robots the area was fatal because we had told them it would be, and only Nestor 10 knew we were lying. And just for a moment he forgot, or didn’t want to remember, that other robots might be more ignorant than human beings. His very superiority caught him.”
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Nestor 10 Quotes in I, Robot
The I, Robot quotes below are all either spoken by Nestor 10 or refer to Nestor 10. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Little Lost Robot
Quotes
“All normal life, Peter, consciously or otherwise, resents domination. If the domination is by an inferior, or by a supposed inferior, the resentment becomes stronger. Physically, and, to an extent, mentally, a robot—any robot—is superior to human beings. What makes him slavish, then? Only the First Law! […]”
“Susan,” said Bogert, with an air of sympathetic amusement. “I’ll admit that this Frankenstein Complex you’re exhibiting has a certain justification—hence the First Law in the first place. But the Law, I repeat and repeat, has not been removed—merely modified.”
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“That he himself could only identify wave lengths by virtue of the training he had received at Hyper Base, under mere human beings, was a little too humiliating to remember for just a moment. To the normal robots the area was fatal because we had told them it would be, and only Nestor 10 knew we were lying. And just for a moment he forgot, or didn’t want to remember, that other robots might be more ignorant than human beings. His very superiority caught him.”
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
