So young Rossum said to himself: “A man is something that feels happy, plays the piano, likes going for a walk, and, in fact, wants to do a whole lot of things that are really unnecessary.”
Get the book at Bookshop.org Supports independent bookstores. We earn a small commission.
Context: The factory's general manager explains how the inventor approached designing a worker.
Source: Act One
Helena: But man is supposed to be the product of God. Domin: All the worse. God hasn’t the slightest notion of modern engineering.
If the timetable holds good, human laws hold good. Divine laws hold good, the laws of the universe hold good, everything holds good that ought to hold good. … The timetable is more significant than…
Alquist: Well, I’m an old man, you know. I’ve got old-fashioned ways. And I’m afraid of all this progress, and these new-fangled ideas. Helena: Like Nana? Alquist: Yes, like Nana. Has Nana got a…
Slaughter and domination are necessary if you would be human beings. Read history.
Alquist: Domin, Domin, what you say sounds too much like Paradise. There was something good in service and something great in humility. There was some kind of virtue in toil and weariness. Domin…
My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are; they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul.