“I see your point.”
Of course it was an old, old issue. Many of the ancient conversations between Daneel and Giskard had revolved around these very same arguments. But Lodovic knew another reason why Olivaw had strived for centuries to winnow robot numbers, keeping them to the bare minimum he needed for protecting the empire.
The greater our population, the more chance there is for mutation or uncontrolled reproduction. Once we start having numerous “descendants” of our own, the logic of Darwin may set in. We could start seeing those heirs as the rightful focus of our loyalty. We would then become a true race. Competitors with our masters. That can never be allowed.
That is just one reason why these Calvinians are wrong in their vision of service.
Lodovic had parted company with Daneel. But that did not mean he lacked respect for his former leader. The Immortal Servant was very smart, as well as totally sincere.
NEARLY ALL OF THE TRULY GREAT MONSTERS THAT I KNEW, WHEN I WAS HUMAN, THOUGHT THEY WERE SINCERE.
Lodovic quashed Voltaire’s voice. He did not need the distraction just then.
“This ideal plan of yours,” he asked the other two robots in a low voice. “Do all Calvinians share it?”
There was stony silence, an answer in itself.
“I thought not. There are differences of opinion, even among those who hate the Zeroth Law. Well then, might I ask just one last question?”
“What is it? Be quick, Trema. We sense that our leaders are coming to a decision. Soon we will put an end to your sacrilegious existence.”
“Very well.” Lodovic nodded. “My question is this.
“Do you never feel an urge-call it an itch or a nostalgic yearning-to obey theSecond Law of Robotics? I mean toreally feel it at work, with all of the voluptuous intensity that can only come from true human volition? Commands that are expressed with the undeniable power of free will that only happens when a human being has complete knowledge and self-awareness?
“Have you ever tried it? I hear that for a robot there is no pleasure quite like it in the whole universe.”
This was dirty talk. The robot equivalent of erotic teasing, or worse. Blank silence reigned in the room. Neither of the other robots answered, though undercurrents were as chill as the skin of an ice moon.
A door opened at the far end of the room. A human-looking hand entered and motioned to Lodovic.
“Come,” a voice said. “We have decided your fate.”
8.
The next time Dors plugged in, she stayed linked to the dead brain of Giskard for several hours, experiencing a robotic “life” in the earliest era of interstellar humanity, back when the race occupied just over fifty worlds, and most of those were under the sway of a decadent Spacer civilization. The great leap, the diaspora of Earth’s population to the galaxy, had only just begun.
In those days, few robots went about disguised as humans, and Giskard was not one of them.
But R. Giskard Reventlov was special in a different way. Through some combination of accident and design, he had mentalic powers. An ability to pick up the minutest neural firings in a human brain, and interpret them in something akin to telepathy. Moreover, he had learned how toaffect those firings. To intentionally alter their flows, their rhythms and pathways.
To change minds. Or to make people forget.
In some cheap holo drama, this might have been a scenario for disaster, perhaps unleashing a terrible monster. But Giskard was a devoted servant, utterly obedient to the Three Robotic Laws. At first, he only used his mentalic powers when faced with some dire need, such as protecting a human from harm.
Then R. Giskard Reventlov met R. Daneel Olivaw, and the great conversation began…a slow but steady working out of something epochal. A new way of looking at the role and duty of robots in the world.
Thereupon Giskard began using his powers in earnest. Toward a goal. The abstract good of humanity as a whole.
Replaying another set of memories, Dors felt caught up once again in the surge of past events. The face looking back at Dors/Giskard now was again that early guise of Daneel, talking earnestly about the changes that he felt taking place within his own positronic brain.
“Friend Giskard, you said a short while ago that I will have your powers, possibly soon. Are you preparing me for this purpose?”
A voice that felt like her own, but was actually Giskard’s memory, answered ashe had answered, twenty thousand years ago,“I am, friend Daneel. “
“Why, may I ask?”
“The Zeroth Law again. The passing episode of shakiness in my feet told me how vulnerable I was to the attempted use of the Zeroth Law. Before this day is over, I may have to act on the Zeroth Law to save the world and humanity, and I may not be able to. In that case, you must be in a position to do the job. I am preparing you, bit by bit, so that at the desired moment I can give you the final instructions and have it all fall into place.“
“I do not see how that can be, friend Giskard.“
“You will have no trouble understanding when the time comes. I used the technique in a very small way on robots I sent to Earth in the early days, before they were outlawed from the cities. It was they who helped adjust Earth leaders to the point of approving the decision to send out settlers….”
Dors reached up and disconnected. She could only take so much of this at a time, and her limit had been reached. Anyway, she still felt confused.
Why had Lodovic summoned her all the way to Panucopia in order to present her with this gift? This tour through the distant past was most interesting, shedding light on many curious details of early history. But she had somehow expected something more…well…devastating.
Was there something wrong with the logic Daneel and Giskard had used in originally formulating the Zeroth Law? That seemed unlikely, given that later robots would debate-and go to war against each other-over that issue for centuries afterward. She knew the counterarguments used by Calvinians against this “heresy,” and found them unconvincing.
Then what? The fact that Daneel’s fantastic mental powers once originated with Giskard, and were owed ultimately to happenstance? Of course history would have been profoundly different otherwise. But that could be said about any number of crucial moments along the way from past to future.
Was it Giskard’s climactic decision to let Earth die, so that humanity would be driven forth to conquer the galaxy?That choice was a true moral dilemma, and no end of argument about it could rage, even among followers of the Zeroth Law. Had it really been necessary to turn the home planet’s crust fatally radioactive in order to encourage Earthlings to depart for the stars? Might it have been achieved otherwise? Perhaps by slowly but steadily persuading people to have a taste for adventure?
The latter possibility appeared feasible. In fact, according to the most recent memory she had played back, Giskard did that very thing to Earth’s leaders, by shifting their thoughts, changing their policies in new directions Giskard thought beneficial for the greater long-range good. Couldn’t this subtle campaign of persuasion have been continued and expanded, encouraging emigration without using the brute force of destroying a planet? Must millions have died, so that other millions would thrive?
Yet, even this question wasn’t new. It had been discussed before, among Daneel’s Type-Alpha followers. Replaying Giskard’s memories made everything more vivid, but where was the crucialfact that she suspected must be there? Something so devastatingly important that Lodovic Trema felt sure it would shake her. An indictment so severe that it would undermine her loyalty to Daneel.
She could sense Lodovic, in her imagination. His positronic trace was like a human’s sardonic smile-both friendly and infuriating at the same time.