Liar!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Liar!" (1941) is science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Through a fault in manufacture, a robot, RB-34 (Herbie) is created that has the ability to read minds. While the roboticists at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men are trying to analyse what happened and why, the robot tells them what other people are thinking. But the First Law still applies to this robot, and so it deliberately lies when necessary to avoid hurting their feelings, especially in terms of the problem it was initially designed to solve. However, by lying, it is hurting them anyway. When it is confronted with this fact by Susan Calvin (to whom it told a lie that was particularly painful to her when it was shown to be false), the robot experiences an unresolvable logical conflict, which results in a total mental breakdown.

The application of the Three Laws of Robotics is again the subject here, like in many others of Asimov's stories, but in terms of telepathy. The lexical ambiguity that is explored here is the definition of injury, the robot having to take into account psychological injury as well as physical.

The story is also a striking early example of the "Does not compute" theme: an artificial intelligence being unable to resolve cognitive dissonance and hence self-destructing.

Another telepathic robot called R. Giskard Reventlov was later introduced by Asimov in the novel The Robots of Dawn, which takes place so long after "Liar!" that its events are considered mythical.

In 1969 this short story was adapted into an episode of the British television series Out of the Unknown.