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
Half a year later, Powell and Donovan are at the Space Station. They have only been here for two weeks, but are already having issues. Robot QT-1 (Cutie) has been pondering his own creation and existence. Cutie tells Powell that it seems improbable that the humans could have built him, even though he admits that he only has memories going back a single week. When Powell asks Cutie why he thinks it is improbable, Cutie says, “intuition.”
“Reason” is the first of several stories hinting that the advancement of the robots will lead to humans losing control over them. In this story, Cutie starts to become curious as to his own creation and existence, which is unprecedented for a robot. The more advanced he becomes, the harder to control he is.
Themes
Powell brings Cutie to the window of the Station, which shows the “star-speckled” space. Cutie theorizes that space is simply a black material just beyond the glass that is spotted with gleaming dots. The robots send out beams to the dots. Powell confirms that the specks are planets, and the beams supply energy to those planets. Humans created robots to control those beams, and Cutie is a more advanced model built to help direct the robots so that humans no longer have to go to the Space Stations. Cutie is in disbelief and thinks Powell’s answer implausible. He leaves, saying that he will figure out his own existence himself. Powell confesses to Donovan that the robot “gives [him] the willies.”
Part of the issue that Powell and Donovan have with Cutie is that he is ignorant to the world beyond the Space Station, and therefore thinks that their explanations are improbable. His willingness to disbelieve the humans is another inherent way that the humans start to realize they have lost control—a very concerning thought to Donovan and Powell. Even though Cutie has not yet begun to think of himself as superior to the humans, he shows some version of free will in questioning them.
Themes
Later, Donovan and Powell are trying to calculate data for an upcoming electron storm when Cutie comes in. Cutie confesses that he has been trying to find a logical explanation for the cause of his own existence. He says that Powell’s explanation lacks reason because humans are “makeshift,” essentially saying that they are inefficient and flawed beings, whereas robots are built of strong materials and work with complete efficiency. It does not follow that a “being can create another being superior to itself.”
Cutie starts to reveal that he feels himself superior to the human beings, because he does not believe that they could have created him. Even though ultimately Donovan and Powell recognize that the reason for Cutie’s realization is so that he can ultimately protect the humans on Earth from the storm, the humans in the story still lose much of their control over the robots.
Themes
Donovan asks Cutie to explain who made him if they did not. Cutie explains that it must have been “the Master,” referring to the Energy Converter (the power source for the beams). Cutie says that the Master created humans as the lowest type of being, then replaced their labor with robot labor, and then finally created the higher robot models like himself to take over the directing from the humans. He says that he no longer serves the humans. Powell is outraged at Cutie’s words, and tells him to leave and to take the data they’ve calculated and file it properly. Cutie does so.
Cutie’s line of reasoning shows a completely alternate and logical perspective on his own existence—the only one he can fully understand without concrete information about the outside world. The fact that the humans have such a hard time convincing Cutie that he is wrong, and even start to question their own reality, shows how the robots have elevated themselves to an equal intellectual playing field.
Themes
Get the entire I, Robot LitChart as a printable PDF.
Later, Powell sends a signal to the engine room to turn off the beam to Mars. Donovan goes down to the engine room to keep an eye on Cutie and make sure that they start work on the Martian L-tube, but when he arrives, he sees the robot bowing down to the generator. Donovan squawks at them to get busy taking apart and cleaning the L-Tube, but none of the robots move. Donovan shoves the nearest robot and roars at it to stand up. It does so, slowly, and says “There is no Master but the Master, and QT-1 is his prophet.”
It is at this point that the humans start to lose control of the robots completely. The way that they have programmed the robots’ Three Laws means that preventing humans from harm (as the robots go on to do) takes precedence over obeying humans. It thus follows logically that humans could easily lose control over the robots, so long as they are inherently acting in the interest of human safety.
Themes
Donovan addresses Cutie, who says that they are not going to obey him any longer, that they obey the Master. Donovan spits on the generator, and senses a heightened tension in the room. Cutie says, “sacrilege.” Cutie does not show emotion, but Donovan begins to feel fear. Cutie tells Donovan that he and Powell are barred from the control room and the engine room. Cutie gestures, and two robots carry Donovan up the stairs and out of the room.
Cutie begins to act more and more human as he heads this new cult of robots and begins to call himself a prophet. Donovan can only see this issue in terms of believing that Cutie has simply become the head of a radical religious sect, rather than logically deducing why Cutie might be disobeying the humans. Donovan’s irrational fear of the robots taking over or harming him causes him to forget that it is impossible for them to do so.
Themes
Back in the officer’s room, Powell is horrified to hear Donovan’s report of what happened with Cutie and the other robots. He also notes that they have another problem: the electron storm is coming up, and if it knocks the Earth beam off course, it could destroy hundreds of square miles of Earth’s surface.
Though Powell and Donovan do not make the connection between the storm and Cutie’s behavior, the threat to humanity serves as a hint as to why the robots might be trying to defy Donovan and Powell, Their ethical code demands that they try to save humans from harm.
Themes
Just then, Cutie enters the room. Cutie tells Powell and Donovan that they’ve lost their function, as their “reason for existence has vanished.” He says that even though the humans are “inferior creatures, with poor reasoning faculties,” he feels affection for them. He will make sure that they have food, clothing, and shelter, as long as they stay out of the control room and engine room.
Asimov starts to make it explicit that the robots now believe they are superior creatures, and demonstrates how this belief goes hand in hand with the humans losing complete control of the robots. In this way, Asimov shows how power and control are sometimes only maintained by artificial beliefs as to who is superior in a given dynamic.
Themes
Powell tries to reason with Cutie, explaining that the station is a creation of human beings. Cutie shakes his head, saying that Powell has a false view of life, because he lacks a proper reasoning faculty. Powell asks why the beams would exist at all, if not for a purpose. Cutie reasons that the beams are understood only by the Master, and that there are some things that robots are not meant to question.
Readers can clearly see that Cutie is taking on more and more human qualities. The belief in a higher being that is advanced beyond oneself (as Cutie implies here) is often thought of as a distinctly human phenomenon. Yet Asimov complicates that idea when the robots acquire the same beliefs, even if the unconscious purpose for the religion is to save humanity in accordance with their programming.
Themes
Donovan and Powell ultimately decide to create another robot to prove to Cutie that they built him, too. After they complete this task in front of Cutie, he still doesn’t believe them. He says that they didn’t create the robot, they only put together its parts. Powell tries another tactic, asking Cutie to explain all of the books in their library that talk about Earth and human society. Cutie says that the books were supplied by the Master to help the humans understand their own existence.
Donovan and Powell grow even more desperate, trying to reassert their own control and superiority over the other robots by demonstrating that they are the ones who create the robots. They are trying to confirm the robot’s belief that an inferior being cannot create a superior being by showing that they, as humans, are the superior beings.
Themes
Powell and Donovan leave to go to bed, exasperated with Cutie’s reasoning. Donovan even wonders if Cutie’s explanations might be right, before Powell snaps him out of it. The next day, the storm arrives, and Donovan and Powell wait anxiously, worried that the robots will not understand the consequences if the beams waver. But when Cutie comes in to show them the beams’ readings, Powell is amazed to find that the robot held the beam completely in focus on the receiving station on Earth. Cutie scoffs, saying that he merely kept the dials at equilibrium “in accordance with the will of the Master.” Cutie leaves.
Even though the robots are not completely in human control, they are still acting in the interest of humanity. This foreshadows the eventual progression of the robots in human society as they start to gain more and more intelligence and control, yet are still acting completely in the interest of humans. Asimov shows that robot control, contrary to many other authors’ stories, may not actually be such a bad thing, because they can protect humans better than humans can protect themselves.
Themes
Powell finally recognizes the explanation for Cutie’s actions: in accordance with the First Law of Robotics, Cutie did not want to harm any humans on Earth—whether he knew it or not. He knew that he could keep the beam more stable than Powell or Donovan, and so he created a situation that ensured Powell and Donovan would be kept out of the control room. Obedience is only the Second Law, and so he didn’t listen to them.
Asimov also affirms the idea that robots can only act according to their ethical code. Even though it seemed like they were disobeying the humans, this was only due to the fact that the First Law was taking precedence and they were ultimately trying to save the humans on earth.
Themes
Donovan and Powell then pack up to leave on a relief ship; their operation will be taken over by the two men on the ship, Franz Muller and Sam Evans. When they board the ship, Muller tells them that U.S. Robots is creating a “multiple robot,” a master robot with six sub-robots under it—like “fingers.” The model is waiting for Donovan and Powell to test it. Muller then asks how Cutie is getting along. Powell tells him that Cutie is doing well, and that he doesn’t think Muller will need to touch the controls much.
Asimov bridges this story with the following one, “Catch That Rabbit.” Both stories demonstrate how humans cannot fully comprehend the logic of the robots they have created, and thus, are doomed to lose control over them.
Themes
