The Positronic Man

THE CHAIRMAN of the Science and Technology Committee of the World Legislature came from the East Asian Region and she was a woman: a small, delicately built, almost elfin woman who very likely was not nearly as fragile as she appeared. Her name was Chee Li-hsing and her transparent garments (which obscured what she wanted obscured by sheer dazzle alone) gave her the look of being nothing more than an elegant little trinket wrapped in plastic. In the splendor of her huge high-ceilinged office on the eighty-fourth floor of the magnificent green-glass tower that was the New York headquarters of the World Legislature she appeared tiny, almost insignificant. Yet she radiated a look of great competence, efficiency, forcefulness.



She said, "I sympathize with your wish to have full human rights. As perhaps you know, there have been times in history when great segments of the human population have been deprived of their own human rights, and have fought furiously-and ultimately successfully-to regain them. But those people suffered greatly under tyrannies of one kind or another before they won their freedom. You, on the other hand, have enjoyed a successful and rewarding life of unending achievement and reward. I imagine you are a widely envied person. So tell me, please: what rights can you possibly want that you do not already have?"



"As simple a thing as my right to life," Andrew replied. " A robot can be dismantled at any time."



"A human being can be executed at any time."



"And when, I ask you, was the last time that such an execution took place?"



"Why-" Li-hsing shrugged. "Of course, the death penalty is not currently employed in our civilization, and it hasn't been for a long time. But certainly it's been imposed to an enormous extent throughout history. And there's no fundamental reason why it couldn't be reinstated next year, if the citizens and the Legislature saw fit to do so."



"All right. You can all go back to cutting each other's heads off, or giving each other lethal jolts of electricity, or whatever, at a moment's notice, if you like. But the fact remains that no human being has been put to death by legal execution in so many years that nobody can remember the last time, and there's absolutely no agitation that I've ever heard of to start performing such executions again. Whereas even now-right now, here, today-I could be ended merely by the word of a human being in authority. No trial. No appeals procedure. You yourself could ring a bell and call your security guards in and say, 'This robot has displeased me. Take him out and dismantle him.' And they would take me out and dismantle me, just like that."



"Impossible!"



"I assure you it would be perfectly legal."



"But you are the head of a great company-a person of wealth and substance and high reputation-"



"Maybe after it had been done my company would be able to sue the Legislature, then, for loss of my services. But I'd still be terminated, wouldn't I? The only laws that protect robots are property laws. If you terminate somebody else's robot unjustifiably, that person can seek damages against you, and collect the value of the robot and maybe a punitive award as well. Fine. Very fine, if you're the human being in the case who's been damaged. But if you're the robot who happened to be terminated, why, the lawsuit doesn't bring you back into existence, does it? Does it, Madam Chairman?"



"This is a mere reductio ad absurdum. No one would dream of-dismantling-you. Of terminating you."



"Perhaps not. But where is my legal protection against having it done to me?"



"I repeat: a reductio ad absurdum. You've lived for nearly two hundred years, as I understand it. Tell me: how many times during that considerable period have you ever been in danger of-termination?"



"Once, actually. I was rescued. But the order for my dismantling had already been given."



"I find that hard to believe," said Chee Li-hsing.



"It was many years ago. I was still in the metallic form, then, and had only just won my freedom."



"There. My point is proven. No one would dare to touch you nowadays!"



"But I have no more legal protection now than I did then. I remain a robot in the eyes of the law. And if someone chose to have me dismantled, I would have no recourse-" Andrew broke off in mid-sentence. This line of reasoning was getting him nowhere. It was too far-fetched, he saw. " All right. Perhaps no one would attempt to harm me. But even so-even so-" Andrew tried desperately to allow no sign of pleading to show, but his carefully designed tricks of human expression and tone of voice betrayed him here. And at last he gave in entirely. "What it really comes down to is this: I very much want to be a man. I have wanted it more and more through six generations of human beings, as the full capacity and range of my mind gradually became apparent to me, and now the urge is overwhelming in me. I can't bear to think of myself as a robot any more-or to have others think of me that way."



Chee Li-hsing looked up at Andrew out of darkly sympathetic eyes.



"So that is it," she said. "As simple as that."



"Simple?"



"A desire to belong to the human race. A powerful yearning-no matter how irrational. It's very human of you to have such feelings, Andrew."



"Thank you." He wasn't certain whether she had meant to patronize him. He hoped not.



Li-hsing said, "I can take your case before the Legislature, yes. And I suppose the Legislature could indeed pass a law declaring you to be a human being. The Legislature has the power to pass a law declaring a stone statue to be defined as a human being, if it cared to. But the statue would still be a statue, nonetheless. And you-"



"No. It's not the same thing. A statue is an inanimate thing of stone, whereas I-I-"



"Of course. It is different. I understand that. But the Legislators may not see it that way. They will not pass any laws turning statues into living things, and I doubt very much that they'd be willing to pass a law turning a robot into a human, either, no matter how eloquently I present your case. Legislators are as human as the rest of the population and I need hardly point out to you that there are certain elements of suspicion and prejudice against robots that have existed since the first robots were developed."



"And exist even now?"



"Even now. As you surely must know. And so the Legislature would be unwilling to act in the way you wish it to. We would all readily concede the fact that you have earned the prize of humanity many times over, and yet we would be frightened by the political consequences of setting an undesirable precedent."



"Undesirable?" Andrew cried, unable to keep a tone of exasperation from creeping into his voice. "Why undesirable? If I'm such a wonderful benefactor of humanity-"



"Yes. But you are a robot. I can hear the outcry now. 'Give one robot human status, and they'll all be asking for it next, and then what's going to happen to-' "



"No," Andrew said. "Not so. I went to court years before you were born and got myself declared a free robot, and the same outcry was raised then. We were able to defeat it. And I'm still the only free robot in the world. No other robot has so much as requested free status, let alone been granted it. And none ever will. I'm unique, Madam Chairman. I'm the only robot of my type that exists, and you can be quite certain that there won't ever be another. If you don't believe me, ask the head of U. S. Robots and Mechanical Men, and he'll tell you that they'll never again allow the construction of a robot as intelligent, as difficult-minded, as troublesome as I turned out to be."



"'Never' is a long time, Andrew. Or would you prefer that I call you 'Mr. Martin'? I will, you know. I will gladly give you my personal accolade as human. But you'll find that most Legislators will be unwilling to set such a startling precedent, even though you provide iron-clad assurances that you are unique and so it will be no precedent at all. Mr. Martin, you have my warmest sympathies. But I can't offer you any real hope."



"You can't? Nothing at all?"



Chee Li-hsing sat back and her forehead furrowed in a deep frown. "The one thing I can offer you, Mr. Martin, is a friendly warning. You are placing yourself in great danger, you need to realize, by making these demands. Indeed, if the issue grows too heated, there might well arise a certain sentiment, both inside the Legislature and certainly outside it, for the very dismantling that you mentioned. A robot of your extraordinary level of attainment could easily be seen as highly threatening, Mr. Martin. Doing away with you could remove that threat and be the easiest way of resolving the difficult political dilemma that you will be forcing upon my colleagues. Consider that, I beg you, before deciding to push matters. "



Andrew said, " And will no one remember that the technique of prosthetology, which is allowing the members of the Legislature to go on holding their seats decade after decade when they should by rights be doddering off to their graves, is something that is almost entirely mine?"



"It may seem cruel of me to say it, but they won't. Or if they do, it'll be something that they'll hold against you rather than count in your favor. Have you ever heard the old saying, 'No good deed goes unpunished?' "



Andrew shrugged and shook his head. "Such a statement makes no sense to me."



"I suppose not. You still aren't very comfortable with our little human irrationalities, are you? But what it means, basically, is that we have a way of turning on those who do us the greatest kindnesses. -No, don't try to dispute it. It's just the way we are."



"Very well. And how does this apply to me?"



"It'll be said, perhaps, that you created prosthetology mainly to serve your own needs. The argument will be raised that the whole science was merely part of a campaign to roboticize human beings, or to humanify robots, and in either case it is something evil and vicious."



"No," Andrew said. "I'm not able to comprehend that kind of reasoning."



"No. You can't, can you? Because ultimately you are still a logical creature controlled by your positronic pathways. And there's no sort of upgrade, I suppose, that can make your way of thinking as erratic as ours can sometimes be. The true depths of irrationality are beyond your reach -which you should not take as any criticism of you, only as a simple statement of the realities. You are very human in most essential respects, Mr. Martin, but you are incapable, I'm afraid, of understanding just how far from rationality human beings will go when they believe that their interests are at stake."



"But if their interests are at stake," Andrew said, "I would think they would attempt to be as rational as possible, so that they would be able to-"



"No. Please. There's no way I can make you truly understand. I can only ask you to accept the validity of what I'm saying. To take it on faith, if that concept has any meaning for you. -You have never been the object of a political hate campaign, have you, Mr. Martin?"



"I don't believe so."



"You would have known it if you had. Well, you will be now. If you persist in this campaign to have yourself declared human, you'll be the object of vilification of a kind neither you nor I would credit and there'll be millions of people who will believe every word of it. Mr. Martin, take a word of advice from me. Accept the condition of your life as it is now. To try to do what you want to do now would be the greatest folly."



"That is what you believe, is it?"



"Yes. That is what I believe." And Chee Li-hsing rose from her desk and walked toward the window and stood there with her back to Andrew. Brilliant light was streaming in, outlining her form with great clarity. From where Andrew sat, her bare figure within the shimmering plastic wrap seemed almost like that of a child-or a doll.



He looked toward Li-hsing for a few moments without saying anything.



Then he asked, "If I decide to fight for my humanity despite all you've said, will you be on my side?"



She continued to stare out the window. Andrew studied her long glossy black hair, her thin shoulders, her delicate arms. She seemed very much like a doll, he thought. And yet he was very much aware by now that indeed there was nothing doll-like about the Chairman of the World Legislature's Science and Technology Committee except her appearance. There was real strength behind that fragile surface.



After a time she said, "Yes, I will-"



"Thank you."



"-insofar as it's possible for me to be," Li-hsing continued smoothly. "But you have to realize that, if at any time my taking a stand in your favor would appear to threaten my political career in a serious way, I might have to abandon you, since this isn't an issue that I feel to be at the very root of my beliefs. What I'm trying to say, Mr. Martin, is that I feel for you, I am saddened by your predicament, but I don't intend to wreck my political future for you. I'm trying to be as honest as I can with you."



"I'm grateful for that, and I can ask no more."



"And do you intend to fight?" she said.



"Yes. Yes, I do. I'll fight it through to the end, whatever the consequences. And I'll count on your help-but only for as long as you can give it."