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Robbie
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I, Robot, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality and Ethics
Human Superiority and Control
Irrationality, Fear, and Folly
Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, and Humanity
Summary
Analysis
Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell, who have been on the surface of Mercury for 12 hours now, realize that their robot SPD 13 (Speedy) hasn’t returned to their space station with selenium, even though they sent him out five hours prior. Donovan has tried to plot Speedy’s location using their radio, showing that he has circled the selenium pool four times in the past two hours but hasn’t been able to get any nearer to it.
It is worth noting that in most of the stories, even the language that the humans use to refer to the robots anthropomorphizes them. By adapting the model number SPD 13 into the name Speedy, and by referring to the robot as “he” instead of “it,” the humans prove how easy they find it to endow the robots with human qualities.
Themes
Donovan and Powell start to get anxious, because they need the selenium in order to power the photo-cell banks that protect them from Mercury’s sun, and Speedy is the only one who can retrieve the selenium. If he doesn’t come back, they will be slowly broiled to death. They decide to send other, more primitive robots to try and see what is wrong with Speedy.
The fact that Donovan and Powell do not understand what is wrong with Speedy shows their lack of control in the situation. The fact that the more primitive robots are the ones sent to troubleshoot the advanced robot suggests that, in some cases, technological advancement can be more troublesome than it is beneficial.
Themes
When Donovan and Powell power up the first robot and tell him to go find Speedy, he responds, “Yes, master.” Powell explains that the makers built “good, healthy slave complexes” into the first talking robots. Additionally, these robots can only be operated with a man riding on its back, so they each put on an insosuit, which will protect them from Mercury’s sun for 20 minutes.
The way in which these more primitive robots have been programmed hints at the fear and irrationality of the humans at the time they created these robots. They wanted full control, and thus built in these “slave complexes” and the inability for the robot to move without a human riding it.
Themes
Donovan and Powell ride the robots out onto the surface of Mercury, staying within the shadows and trying to avoid the sun. They find Speedy, still circling the selenium pool and lurching from side to side, and they try to call to him. But Speedy merely says nonsensical things, quotes Gilbert and Sullivan, and turns in the direction from which he came and speeds off. Donovan says that he thinks Speedy is “drunk.”
This serves as another example of the men ascribing human behavior to robots. Clearly Speedy cannot be drunk in the literal sense, but they are only able to understand his lurching and rambling in the context of human behavior.
Themes
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Donovan and Powell try to figure out what could be wrong with Speedy. Powell asks Donovan what he said to Speedy when he sent him to find the selenium. Donovan says that he simply told Speedy to retrieve the material, but didn’t put any urgency in his instructions. Powell starts to list the three fundamental Rules of Robotics: one, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Two, a robot must obey orders given by humans, except in any case that would conflict with the first law. Three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as its actions do not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
This is the reader’s first introduction to all three Rules of Robotics, which become crucial to all of the stories. These Three Laws set a very high ethical standard for the robots, particularly because of what the readers have already learned in “Robbie”: that robots will be inoperable before can could break any of these Three Laws. This is why, in Asimov’s stories, robots are often perceived to be better than human beings, because they are required to follow the Rules so strictly.
Themes
Powell realizes what is wrong with Speedy: Speedy is very expensive, and so his “allergy to danger is unusually high.” The Third Rule has been strengthened in the SPD robot model—a fact which came with the robot’s notice. Thus, Powell concludes that there must be some sort of danger near the selenium pool, like volcanic action of some kind. The Second Rule causes Speedy to go closer to the pool, but when he gets too close, the Third Rule drives him away from the danger. Thus, he is circling the pool at the locus of points where the two rules motivate him to exactly the same degree.
The fact that the humans did not anticipate the consequences of the strengthened Third Law—even though they knew that the robot had been programmed this way—hints at the ways in which the humans are not necessarily intellectually superior, or at least sometimes lack the same kind of logic that is built into the robots’ consciousnesses. This fact frequently causes the humans to lose control of their creations.
Themes
Donovan and Powell try to figure a solution: they cannot get the selenium themselves, as they would have to spend too much time in the sun, and they can’t send their other robots alone. Donovan suggests that they increase the danger in Speedy’s vicinity to try to drive him back to the space station.
The fact that the more primitive robots have been built so that they cannot move without a human being riding them has actually put Donovan and Powell in danger, because it means that they cannot simply send the robots out to find Speedy. This demonstrates how the humans’ fear of losing control of the robots has actually led to their folly.
Themes
Donovan and Powell return to the spot a few hours later with oxalic acid, which will pose a threat to Speedy’s metal body. The men are grim, realizing that their photo-cell banks are deteriorating rapidly. They throw the oxalic acid behind Speedy to try to drive Speedy back towards them, but Speedy merely turns in the opposite direction and runs away. Powell yells in frustration, realizing that they’ve wasted hours and all they’ve done is established new equilibriums that Speedy is trying to follow. They have no way of retrieving him.
Again, the humans’ misunderstanding of the robots that they have created actually puts them less in control of the robots. They should have been able to anticipate that this solution would still present a conflict between the Second and Third Laws, and yet they still waste hours and drive Speedy even further away from them. This proves that the humans may not in fact be superior to the robots because humans are incapable of understanding them.
Themes
Powell realizes there is one drastic action they can take: to try to invoke the First Rule, which supersedes the Second and Third Rules and would cure Speedy of his “drunkenness.” Powell dashes out into the sunlight on the back of his robot, running toward Speedy. He starts to feel the sting of radiation and the heat of the sun. He dismounts his robot and walks toward Speedy, insisting that he needs Speedy to take him back into the shadows or he will die. The robot Powell had ridden on tries to come to Powell to save him, but Powell continues to call out for Speedy. Speedy wakes from his stupor and grabs Powell just as he passes out from heat.
The humans have made their situation so dire that Powell feels the only solution is to risk his life in order to shake Speedy from his loop. Even though this is perhaps the only solution, it still demonstrates humans’ folly if the only way to save themselves is first to put themselves in even more danger. Even this plan almost fails, because Powell forgets that the robot he rode in on will have the same ethical standards as Speedy and will try to save him first, negating Speedy’s drive to save Powell.
Themes
When Powell wakes, Donovan is bending over him. He explains that Speedy brought Powell back to their Station, and then Donovan sent Speedy out to get the selenium “at all costs,” so the Second Law would take unquestionable precedence. Speedy had retrieved the selenium easily. Powell then admits Susan Calvin told him that after they fully set up the mining station on Mercury, U.S. Robots plans to send Powell and Donovan to the Space Stations next. They are both thrilled, as the space stations are 273 degrees Centigrade below zero.
Only at the conclusion of the story does Donovan seem to understand the necessary instructions that will enable Speedy to retrieve the selenium. Even though the humans have understood their mistake, and the story ends happily, it nearly cost them their lives. This irrationality and lack of understanding of the robots will be recurring themes for Donovan and Powell, as they get into similar trouble in “Reason,” “Catch That Rabbit” and “Escape!”
Themes
