I, Robot: Runaround 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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.