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his own but he intended to. The thought of raising a child gave his
life direction, gave him a sense of purpose he hadn t even realized
until now he was missing.
Ariel, evidently realizing he wouldn t pressure her whether he held
onto her or not, lay down in the grass beside him, resting her head on
his chest. His arms went around her automatically, and it felt
perfectly natural to be holding her so. It felt right. For a time, as they
watched the clouds drift past overhead, the rooftop garden seemed to
become their whole universe, and it was a good universe.
Ariel s thoughts had evidently been paralleling his own, but along a
different track. I m glad we re not on Earth any more, she said
suddenly. I d feel even worse there.
No kidding. Derec shuddered. With a population in the billions,
Earth was no place to be having children. There, where the population
density in the enclosed cities could be measured easily in people per
square meter, every new mouth to feed was a tragedy, not a blessing.
And what was worse, too few of the people there were worried enough
to do anything about it. Here stood an entire planet covered with city,
full of robots eager to share it, yet Derec doubted if he could find
enough people in all of Earth to fill even the section he could survey
from this one rooftop. Most of them hated space, hated robots, and on
an even more fundamental level, hated change. They wouldn t leave
Earth even for a better world.
A few of them would. After a long hiatus, Earth had once again begun
settling alien worlds, but the fraction of its population involved was
insignificant. The birth rate there would replace its emigrants before
they could achieve orbit.
It was a sobering thought. Derec recalled Lucius s words to Ariel at
their first meeting, his assertion that no thinking being would want
every human who might possibly exist to do so, but it seemed as if
a
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Earthers were doing their best to ensure just that. They seemed intent
on turning their entire biosphere into a teeming mass of humanity.
An irrational fear washed over him, the fear that Earth society would
somehow intrude upon his happiness even here, that its riot of bodies
could somehow threaten even Robot City. Derec felt his heart begin
beating faster, his breathing tighten, as he considered his child s
potential enemies.
Hormones! he thought wryly a second later. Paranoia was evidently a
survival trait.
To space with Earth, he said, tickling Ariel playfully in the ribs.
We re beyond all that.
The sun had shifted position considerably when Derec awoke. He
couldn t tell whether it was from the simple passage of time, or if the
building had moved beneath them while they slept. Probably both, he
decided. He lay in the grass, Ariel still sleeping with her head on his
shoulder, while he decided whether or not to get up.
A noise from beyond the edge of the building made the decision for
him. Someone had screamed! Derec was up in an instant, leaping for
the railing around the edge and peering down.
A hunter-seeker robot a stealthy; black-surfaced special-function
bot with advanced detection circuitry stood in the center of an
intersection, pivoting slowly around in a circle. A rustle of motion in a
doorway caught its attention and it stopped. It raised its right hand,
pointing with the forefinger extended, and a bright red laser beam
shot out from its finger toward the doorway. Another scream echoed
off the buildings.
Derec looked up the street. Every intersection, for as far as he could
see, had a hunter-seeker standing in it. Avery had ordered them to
clean up the rodents his way.
Stop! he sent to them. Cease hunting activity.
The hunter closest to him looked upward, and Derec felt a momentary
urge to back away from the railing. Any robot and Derec as well, for
that matter could tell what general direction a comlink signal was
coming from, but a hunter-seeker could pinpoint the source and
shoot at it. But the robot couldn t fire at him. It would see instantly
who he was, and the First Law would prevent it. Derec stayed at the
railing and sent, You are ordered to cease killing those creatures.
I am sorry, master Derec. I already have orders to kill them.
What s going on? Ariel asked sleepily from his side. She leaned
against the railing and looked down.
Avery s ordered the robots to kill all of Lucius s rodents. I m trying to
get them to stop. I order you not to kill them, he sent. You should
respect life.
I respect human life. That is all.
Those creatures carry human genes.
That has been explained to me. That does not make them human. As
a
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B
B
A
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Click here to buy
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w
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the hunter spoke, another rodent made a dash for safety, but the
hunter twitched its hand in a blur of motion, the beam shot out, and
the rodent tumbled end over end in the street, screaming. The hunter
fired again and the screaming stopped.
They certainly have human vocal apparatus, Derec thought.
Damn it, you re upsetting me. Stop it!
The hunter robot paused at that, but evidently Avery had warned it to
expect such a ploy. I regret that I cannot, it said. Your displeasure is
not as important as your safety. These creatures could pose a safety
hazard.
You don t know that.
I have been ordered to consider them as such. The hunter turned its
attention back to the street. It resumed its search, shooting again at
another rodent. This time the rodent died silently, and Derec realized
that the robot was attempting to limit his discomfort by making a
clean kill.
Derec tried to think of a way to get around Avery s programming, but
no solution came to mind. Avery had made his orders first and
stressed that they were to be followed no matter what Derec said;
there was very little Derec could do to counter them now.
How fickle a robot s behavior could be under the three laws! A robot
gardener could lock up at the mere mention of a life-threatening
dilemma involving humans, but the hunter-seekers could shoot
rodents all day long. None of them cared about life in general. Not
even the gardener truly cared about his charges except for their
potential to please a human.
How could that be right? Even the cruelest human cared about
something. Derec was willing to bet even Avery had a soft spot for
kittens or puppies or something. How could he ever expect a society
of robots to mimic a human society if they held no reverence for life?
Come on, Derec said, seething with righteous indignation. Let s go
home.
His anger had mellowed a bit by the time they reached their
apartment, but it flared to life again the moment he saw Avery
standing by the living room window, watching his hunter-seekers at
work. He was about to start a shouting match, but Mandelbrot s
sudden exclamation switched the topic of discussion before he ever
had a chance.
Congratulations, Ariel! said the robot the moment he saw them
enter the apartment.
Shh! she told him, forefinger to her lips, but the damage had been
done.
Avery turned away from the window. Congratulations? Whatever
for, Mandelbrot?
His question was a stronger order to speak than Ariel s whispered
command to be quiet. The robot said, Mistress Ariel is preg
a
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Y
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B
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A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
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w
w
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r r
Shut up! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
his own but he intended to. The thought of raising a child gave his
life direction, gave him a sense of purpose he hadn t even realized
until now he was missing.
Ariel, evidently realizing he wouldn t pressure her whether he held
onto her or not, lay down in the grass beside him, resting her head on
his chest. His arms went around her automatically, and it felt
perfectly natural to be holding her so. It felt right. For a time, as they
watched the clouds drift past overhead, the rooftop garden seemed to
become their whole universe, and it was a good universe.
Ariel s thoughts had evidently been paralleling his own, but along a
different track. I m glad we re not on Earth any more, she said
suddenly. I d feel even worse there.
No kidding. Derec shuddered. With a population in the billions,
Earth was no place to be having children. There, where the population
density in the enclosed cities could be measured easily in people per
square meter, every new mouth to feed was a tragedy, not a blessing.
And what was worse, too few of the people there were worried enough
to do anything about it. Here stood an entire planet covered with city,
full of robots eager to share it, yet Derec doubted if he could find
enough people in all of Earth to fill even the section he could survey
from this one rooftop. Most of them hated space, hated robots, and on
an even more fundamental level, hated change. They wouldn t leave
Earth even for a better world.
A few of them would. After a long hiatus, Earth had once again begun
settling alien worlds, but the fraction of its population involved was
insignificant. The birth rate there would replace its emigrants before
they could achieve orbit.
It was a sobering thought. Derec recalled Lucius s words to Ariel at
their first meeting, his assertion that no thinking being would want
every human who might possibly exist to do so, but it seemed as if
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Earthers were doing their best to ensure just that. They seemed intent
on turning their entire biosphere into a teeming mass of humanity.
An irrational fear washed over him, the fear that Earth society would
somehow intrude upon his happiness even here, that its riot of bodies
could somehow threaten even Robot City. Derec felt his heart begin
beating faster, his breathing tighten, as he considered his child s
potential enemies.
Hormones! he thought wryly a second later. Paranoia was evidently a
survival trait.
To space with Earth, he said, tickling Ariel playfully in the ribs.
We re beyond all that.
The sun had shifted position considerably when Derec awoke. He
couldn t tell whether it was from the simple passage of time, or if the
building had moved beneath them while they slept. Probably both, he
decided. He lay in the grass, Ariel still sleeping with her head on his
shoulder, while he decided whether or not to get up.
A noise from beyond the edge of the building made the decision for
him. Someone had screamed! Derec was up in an instant, leaping for
the railing around the edge and peering down.
A hunter-seeker robot a stealthy; black-surfaced special-function
bot with advanced detection circuitry stood in the center of an
intersection, pivoting slowly around in a circle. A rustle of motion in a
doorway caught its attention and it stopped. It raised its right hand,
pointing with the forefinger extended, and a bright red laser beam
shot out from its finger toward the doorway. Another scream echoed
off the buildings.
Derec looked up the street. Every intersection, for as far as he could
see, had a hunter-seeker standing in it. Avery had ordered them to
clean up the rodents his way.
Stop! he sent to them. Cease hunting activity.
The hunter closest to him looked upward, and Derec felt a momentary
urge to back away from the railing. Any robot and Derec as well, for
that matter could tell what general direction a comlink signal was
coming from, but a hunter-seeker could pinpoint the source and
shoot at it. But the robot couldn t fire at him. It would see instantly
who he was, and the First Law would prevent it. Derec stayed at the
railing and sent, You are ordered to cease killing those creatures.
I am sorry, master Derec. I already have orders to kill them.
What s going on? Ariel asked sleepily from his side. She leaned
against the railing and looked down.
Avery s ordered the robots to kill all of Lucius s rodents. I m trying to
get them to stop. I order you not to kill them, he sent. You should
respect life.
I respect human life. That is all.
Those creatures carry human genes.
That has been explained to me. That does not make them human. As
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
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Y
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r r
the hunter spoke, another rodent made a dash for safety, but the
hunter twitched its hand in a blur of motion, the beam shot out, and
the rodent tumbled end over end in the street, screaming. The hunter
fired again and the screaming stopped.
They certainly have human vocal apparatus, Derec thought.
Damn it, you re upsetting me. Stop it!
The hunter robot paused at that, but evidently Avery had warned it to
expect such a ploy. I regret that I cannot, it said. Your displeasure is
not as important as your safety. These creatures could pose a safety
hazard.
You don t know that.
I have been ordered to consider them as such. The hunter turned its
attention back to the street. It resumed its search, shooting again at
another rodent. This time the rodent died silently, and Derec realized
that the robot was attempting to limit his discomfort by making a
clean kill.
Derec tried to think of a way to get around Avery s programming, but
no solution came to mind. Avery had made his orders first and
stressed that they were to be followed no matter what Derec said;
there was very little Derec could do to counter them now.
How fickle a robot s behavior could be under the three laws! A robot
gardener could lock up at the mere mention of a life-threatening
dilemma involving humans, but the hunter-seekers could shoot
rodents all day long. None of them cared about life in general. Not
even the gardener truly cared about his charges except for their
potential to please a human.
How could that be right? Even the cruelest human cared about
something. Derec was willing to bet even Avery had a soft spot for
kittens or puppies or something. How could he ever expect a society
of robots to mimic a human society if they held no reverence for life?
Come on, Derec said, seething with righteous indignation. Let s go
home.
His anger had mellowed a bit by the time they reached their
apartment, but it flared to life again the moment he saw Avery
standing by the living room window, watching his hunter-seekers at
work. He was about to start a shouting match, but Mandelbrot s
sudden exclamation switched the topic of discussion before he ever
had a chance.
Congratulations, Ariel! said the robot the moment he saw them
enter the apartment.
Shh! she told him, forefinger to her lips, but the damage had been
done.
Avery turned away from the window. Congratulations? Whatever
for, Mandelbrot?
His question was a stronger order to speak than Ariel s whispered
command to be quiet. The robot said, Mistress Ariel is preg
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Shut up! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]