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Page 62
Andrew says, ''My body is a canvas on which I intend to draw" A roboticist completes the sentence: "A man?" For his accomplishments Andrew is honored as the Sesquicentennial Robot on the 150th anniversary of his construction. He then wants to be declared a man by the World Legislature. After twenty-six years of defeat, Andrew recognizes that human antipathy toward him is rooted in his immortality, and he arranges for the potential to be drained slowly from his brain so that he will die within a year. On his 200th anniversary, the World President signs the act and declares the dying Andrew "a Bicentennial Man." Andrew's last thoughts are of the child to which he was nursemaid.
"The Bicentennial Man" was a fitting conclusion to the robot saga. At last Asimov had arrived at the essential question: What is the difference between robots and humans? He first asked the question in "Evidence." He brought up and dismissed external evidence; even actions might only demonstrate that Byerley is an extremely good man. In "Victory Unintentional," the robots are believed by the Jovians to be humans and a superior race because the robots never say they are not. In "Let's Get Together," the question of distinguishing humanoids from humans is short-circuited by induction. In "Risk," the reader learns that the difference between robots and humans is that humans can be given general orders; in "Lenny," that humans, and only unusual kinds of robots, can learn. "That Thou Art Mindful of Him" speculates that, given the opportunity to make a judgment, robots will decide on the basis of their superiority that only they are human. "The Tercentenary Incident" distinguishes robot from human only by superior performance.
In "The Bicentennial Man," Asimov follows the question to its final answer. Andrew's first human attribute is his artistic ability, but this is not enough, nor is his bank account. The distinguishing characteristic seems to be freedom, but that is not enough. Andrew continues to explore the differences between humans and robots in an effort to discover the definitive answer: humans wear clothes and robots do not; humans have rights and robots do not; humans have biological bodies and robots have metal bodies; humans gain energy from the combustion of hydrocarbons, robots, from atomic energy; humans can discriminate between short-term cruelty and long-term kindness and robots cannot; humans die and robots are immortal. But perhaps the final distinction is Andrew's sentimental and hard-to-rationalize desire to be human when he is so clearly superior to humans in every way. The sentimentality that threatens the story is essential to the argument: robots are

 
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