Herbie Character Analysis

A mind-reading robot that features in “Liar!” Herbie is a one-of-a-kind robot, and the roboticists spend much of the story trying to figure out how Herbie acquired his telepathic abilities. Herbie creates quite a bit of trouble, however. After reading Susan Calvin’s mind and seeing that she is in love with Milton Ashe, Herbie tells her that Ashe returns her love, because Herbie doesn’t want to see Calvin hurt according to the First Law. He also lies to Peter Bogert, explaining that Alfred Lanning is going to be retiring and giving his director position to Bogert. Even Calvin, the chief robopsychologist, cannot see that Herbie is lying because it is difficult not to think of the robots as humans. She believes that Herbie would act as a human would, and recognize that lying would ultimately cause more harm than good. When Calvin discovers the truth, Herbie even tries to continue his ruse by telling her that it is all a dream, in order to make her feel better. Ultimately, Herbie is caught in a paradox of his own making: when Bogert and Lanning get into an argument over what Herbie said, Herbie realizes that telling the truth would hurt Bogert, while lying would hurt Lanning. This dilemma causes him to collapse and remain silent, serving as another example of how the robots are bound to their ethical code to the point where they may even become inoperable.