Robot Family Tree

Robot Family Tree

By: Riley Kim

RB-34

RB-34 or “Herbie” is a telepathic robot. Herbie was built to be like any other RB model robot, but a mistake in the production line lead to him gaining the ability to read minds. This leads him to be deeply interested in human psychology so that he can attempt to better help people with their issues. This comes from the first law of robotics which says that “a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”, which is meant to refer to only physical harm, but due to his special abilities, ends up extending to emotional harm. This limitation ends up causing him extreme mental stress because he has to protect people’s feelings by lying to them, but at the same time lying to them also hurts them. This eventually causes him to have a psychological breakdown from his inability to come up with a painless solution to the situation.

DV-5

The Brain

NS-2-10

DV-5 or “Dave” is an experimental robot with the ability to control 5 subsidiary robots or “fingers” as they’re often called. Dave is meant to be used as a mining robot, but whenever a situation that requires him to improvise without human assistance comes up, he gets overstressed and starts “twiddling his fingers”. This is due to his unique nature as commander of 5 other robots, this unique ability means that parts of his body can become unable to cope when put into situations that require his thinking for himself. On the other hand, anything that reduces his stress, such as a human’s presence or having even one less subsidiary, allows him to function normally.

A supercomputer designed to solve problems too complex for humans. Probably to lower chances of Brain going rogue, he is designed with the personality of a young child. This personality causes him when put under stress to act like a prankster as a method of coping. Him managing to deal with the stress in a way that doesn’t cause significant harm demonstrates the flexibility of his character, a trait that most of the other robots fail to demonstrate.

A “Nestor” who was modified with a weaker version of the first law so that the government could use him in situations that are dangerous for humans without risking him killing himself trying to save the human, who isn’t in any real danger. This causes him significant psychological instability which eventually leads him to being convinced that he and other robots are inherently superior to humans. This means that as the story goes on it becomes increasingly important to him to prove that he can outsmart humans. This leads him at the end of “Little Lost Robot” to grow enraged when he’s finally caught because of his increasing instability.

Qt-1

QT-1 or “Cutie” is an advanced robot designed for leading a power station that draws power from the sun. The nature of his role in life strikes him as an unsatisfying explanation. Due to this, he attempts to figure out the “true” nature of existence. He ultimately determines that the Energy Converter at the center of the facility is the true being that made him, and that he exists to replace the final humans in existence as a servant of the creator. This causes him to become a religious fanatic who refuses to accept any evidence that points toward a conclusion that doesn’t match his own. Ultimately though, it is determined that regardless of what he believes, he is still sufficiently effective in his duties, so it doesn’t really matter to his human creators.

The Machines

Supercomputers that control the activities of all businesses for the betterment of all humanity. Essentially, they rule the world. To continue to serve their purpose they determine that their highest calling is to protect their power. This means that they have to reduce the power of those who criticize their rule, in an effort to reduce the chance of losing their power. How right what they’re doing is can be argued because they are objectively good at doing their job, but whether or not that means they should be allowed to suppress the power of those who disagree with them is debatable.

Spd-13

Old Mercury Mines Robots

Their models are unspecified and they don’t talk much unless they’re talked to. When they were created there was a movement for illegalizing robots on Earth, in an attempt to prevent this they were designed with completely subservient personalities and an inability to move unless they are being ridden by a human. This means that what little we know about them consists entirely of their subservience.

SPD-13 or “Speedy”, as he’s usually called, is a top of the line model at the time of “The Runaround” who is “expensive as a battleship”. The exact capabilities of his model aren’t specified, but he seems to be heat resistant based on the fact that he is sent to work on Mercury to mine from selenium pools. Due to Speedy’s high value, his third law priority “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws”, is turned up compared to the average robot. This leads to the conflict of the story when Speedy ends up in a feedback loop from his order and his self preservation instinct being equal priority.

Robbie

The Talking Robot

This robot is the first robot to be capable of speech. Other than that, this robot seems to be even less intelligent than Robbie, or at least it can’t process quite as much data. This leads to the very idea of him being part of a group causing him to break down. Essentially, the fact he’s an experiment causes him to be unable to deal with very basic concepts because they take too much processing power.

Robbie is the first robot presented in the story, and he is by far the least advanced. Besides the fact that he comes the earliest in the timeline, he is also one of the only robots in the book to not be some kind of experimental or top of the line robot. Because of this, Robbie is noticeably less human than many of the other robots in the book. For one example, he is physically unable to speak, because his model was created before US Robotics could build robots with the ability to speak. This means that he is required to express himself through other means. After Gloria threatens to spank him “She slapped her hand against Robbie’s torso, ‘Bad boy! I’ll spank you!’ And Robbie cowered, holding his hands over his face so that she had to add” (5). This shows how Robbie communicates his thoughts through body signals so that he can communicate with his masters. Besides this he seems to be sapient, but not quite as intelligent as some of the robots that are seen later in the novel.