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I believe this is the story with Cutie (nickname for QT-1) who invents a religion to justify its existence. The amusing thing was that the rituals of its religi
by _mhr_ 9y ago
I believe this is the story with Cutie (nickname for QT-1) who invents a religion to justify its existence. The amusing thing was that the rituals of its religion consisted of making sure the space colony functioned properly, so the humans decided to leave the robot's faith alone. And the robot thought that the humans were mindless religious fools for believing in Earth:
"""The robot approached softly and there was sorrow in his voice. “You are going?”
Powell nodded curtly. “There will be others in our place.”
Cutie sighed, with the sound of wind humming through closely spaced wires. “Your term of service is over and the time of dissolution has come. I expected it, but -- well, the Master’s will be done!”
His tone of resignation stung Powell. “Save the sympathy, Cube. We’re heading for Earth, not dissolution.”
"It is best that you think so,” Cutie sighed again. “I see the wisdom of the illusion now. I would not attempt to shake your faith, even if I could.” He departed -- the picture of commiseration."""
--"Reason" by Isaac Asimov
- taeric 9y agoExactly that one. One of my favorite shorts in that collection. I loved how one of the humans was annoyed and felt that they should correct the robot. (Assuming my memory isn't making that detail up...)
- loup-vaillant 9y agoWait a minute, doesn't the first law requires Cutie to prevent humans to dissolve themselves?
- _mhr_ 9y agoI think the point of the story was that Cutie could follow orders and prevent harm properly without conscious knowledge of its doing so. Though it consciously believes the humans are going to dissolve themselves, its unconscious circuitry knows otherwise. Does that make sense? Or maybe it's just a plot hole. But I think the purpose of the story is to point out that Cutie can follow all the laws of robotics without realizing it.
- loup-vaillant 9y agoCould work. On the other hand, Asimov later described a situation where the protagonist suspects someone of conspiring to have robots unwittingly kill lots of humans, by shooting as space ships (which the robot would believe are just other robots). More generally, I never spot a story where robots have unconscious cognitive processes. It seems everything they do is deliberate, even though the humans around them don't fully understand what is thinking on.