I, Robot

Stephen Byerley and Susan Calvin meet in his study. He is now World Coordinator of Earth. He has noted some problems with the Machines that run the economy: certain parts of the economy are producing some small imbalances. The Mexican Canal is two months behind schedule, the mercury mines at Almaden have a production deficiency, and the Hydroponics plant is laying people off.

Byerley explains that all periods of human development have led to “inevitable conflicts,” where groups have fought against each other, right up through the 20th century, with its nationalist and ideological wars. But when the robots came, the world changed, and it “no longer seemed so important whether the world was Adam Smith or Karl Marx.” But Earth’s economy is now stable because of the calculating Machines that control it, and which protect humanity through the First Law. The economic balance put an end to all wars.

Byerley goes on to say that these errors, however, may lead to another war, because the Machines may not be fulfilling their function. These errors should not exist, because the Machines are self-correcting, and they should not harm people in this way. He says that they have no way to check exactly what is wrong, however, because the complexity of what the Machines do has far exceeded human knowledge. They analyze a nearly infinite amount of data in very little time. Calvin assents that they “no longer understand [their] own creations.”

Byerley says they asked the Machine for explanations for these economic aberrations, but the Machine could not answer. Byerley gives his theories: first, that the Machines might have been given the wrong data, and thus the error was on the human end, not the Machine end. Byerley and Calvin start to go through each region of Earth to look at the data and speak to each Regional Coordinator.

Byerley starts with the Eastern Region, coordinated by Ching Hso-Lin. Ching explains that over the last few months, some of their synthetic food plants have had to be shut down. This is because fads and the changing popularity of foods sometimes requires different equipment, and therefore also different people to run that equipment. He explains that the Machines usually predict these changes well, but sometimes there is too much production of a product that goes out of fashion.

Ching does point out one odd incident: a man named Rama Vrasayana was running a plant which was forced to close due to competition. It was strange that the Machine did not warn Vrasayana to renovate. Otherwise, Ching assures Byerley and Calvin that this is the only issue they’ve had.

Byerley goes through the same steps with the Tropic Region, coordinated by Lincoln Ngoma. Ngoma explains that they’re a little short on labor to finish the Mexican Canal. He refers to an incident in which Francisco Villafranca, the engineer in charge, was involved in a cave-in which set the project back. The Machine later reported that Villafranca’s calculations were off. But Villafranca claimed the Machine had given him different data the first time, and that he had followed the Machine faithfully.

Ngoma notes that it makes sense that Villafranca would blame the Machine—particularly because he attended conferences by the Society for Humanity, an anti-Machine group that grew out of the Fundamentalists.

Next, Byerley and Calvin meet with the Coordinator of the European Region, named Madame Szegeczowska. They talk about the mercury mines being behind on production. Szegeczowska says that Almaden is run by a Northern company that is connected with the Society for Humanity; she worries that they have not been consulting the Machines. She assures them, however, that the company is being sold to a group of Spaniards and that there will likely be no more trouble.

Byerley and Calvin finish with the Northern Region, coordinated by Hiram Mackenzie. Mackenzie refutes the idea that the Machines are coming up with errors because of incorrect data, because they recognize outliers in what they are given. Byerley asks how he accounts for the errors. Mackenzie takes the example of someone buying cotton textiles: there is no quantitative data to predict what might feel good to a person when they are buying something, and they cannot explain it themselves. Therefore, in these cases, there is no data to give the Machines. The human brain is subjective and inconsistent.

Byerley and Calvin regroup with what they have been told. They wonder if people are deliberately disobeying the Machines so they might be able to gain greater economic status or power than the other regions. Byerley also notes the links of many of these stories to the Society for Humanity. Both Villafranca and Vrasayana were members of the group, and the company at Almaden also had links to it. Thus, they must have been mistrustful of the Machines and disobeyed them. He resolves to have the Society outlawed, and every member removed from government posts.

Calvin offers an alternative theory to Byerley. The Machines follow the First Law, and work for the good of humanity as a whole. If the Machines were to be destroyed, the Earth would come to great harm. Therefore, they have been “quietly taking care of the only elements left that threaten them.” The Machines have been disrupting people and companies that threaten them, so that they can remain in control of the economy.

Byerley is stunned, wondering if this means that mankind has lost its say in its future. Calvin responds that humanity was always at the mercy of social and economic forces it did not understand. Now the Machines understand those forces, and perhaps it is a good thing that they are in control, because they are looking out for humanity. Perhaps, she says, all conflicts “are finally evitable.”

Calvin concludes her tales to the reporter, explaining that she saw everything: from the time when robots couldn’t speak, to the end, when they stood “between mankind and destruction.” She tells the reporter that he will see what comes next. They do not speak again, and Calvin dies at the age of 82.