Runaround
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the short story "Runaround". For the unrelated television show of the same name, see Runaround (game show).
| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | Robot Series |
| Genre(s) | science fiction short story |
| Released in | Astounding Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Street & Smith |
| Media Type | Magazine |
| Released | March 1942 |
| Preceded by | First Law |
| Followed by | Reason |
Runaround is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was written in October 1941 and first published in the March 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It appears in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990).
Many of Asimov's robot stories explore the implications of the Three Laws of Robotics, although in "Runaround" the robot is actually following the Laws as they were intended. In others, ambiguities in the language are employed to achieve the desired effect: that the robot does what it was told, but not what was intended.
[edit] Plot
In 2015, Powell and Donovan and Robot SPD-13 (aka "Speedy") are sent to restart operations at a mining station on Mercury that was abandoned ten years before.
They discover that the photo-cell banks that provide life support to the base are short on selenium and will soon fail. The nearest selenium pool is seventeen miles away, and since Speedy can withstand Mercury’s high temperatures, Donovan sends him to get it. The astronauts become worried when they realize that Speedy has not returned after five hours. They use a more primitive robot to go to retrieve Speedy and try to analyze what happened to it.
When they eventually find Speedy, they discover he is running in a huge circle around a selenium pool. Further, they "notice that Speedy’s gait included a peculiar rolling stagger, a noticeable side-to-side lurch" (Asimov 49). When the astronauts ask Speedy to come back with the selenium, Speedy starts saying things like, "Hot dog, let’s play games. You catch me and I catch you; no love can cut our knife in two" (Asimov 49) and quoting Gilbert and Sullivan. Speedy continues to show symptoms that, if he were a human, would be interpreted as drunkenness.
Powell realizes that the selenium source contains some sort of unexpected danger to the robot. Under normal circumstances, Speedy would observe Second Law ("a robot must obey orders"), but, because Speedy was so expensive to manufacture and "[i]t’s not a thing to be lightly destroyed ... Rule Three has been strengthened ... so that his allergy to danger is unusually high" (Asimov 51). As the order to retrieve the selenium was casually worded with no particular emphasis, Speedy cannot decide whether to obey it (Rule Two) or protect himself from danger (the strengthened Rule Three). As a compromise, he circles the selenium until the harsh conditions and conflicting Rules damage him to the point that he has started acting inebriated.
Attempts to order Speedy to return (Rule Two) fail as the conflicted positronic brain can't accept new orders. Attempts to change the danger to the robot (Rule Three) simply cause Speedy to change routes until he finds a new avoid danger/follow order equillibrium.
Of course, the only thing that trumps both Rules Two and Three is Rule One ("a robot must not allow its human masters to come to harm"). Therefore, Powell decides to risk his life by going out in the heat; hopefully Rule One will force Speedy to save him and snap out of his 'drunken' state. Speedy eventually does so, and the team is able to repair the photo-cell banks.
[edit] Works cited
- Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1950
| Preceded by: | Included in: | Series: |
Followed by: |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Law |
The Complete Robot I, Robot |
Robot Series |
Reason |
| I, Robot |
| Robbie | Runaround | Reason | Catch that Rabbit | Liar! | Little Lost Robot | Escape! | Evidence | The Evitable Conflict |
