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clustered around Susan Calvin, considered as one of the early pioneers in robotics. Particular reference is made to "Liar!" and less specific references to other stories, such as "Little Lost Robot," "Evidence,'' and "The Evitable Conflict," and, outside that book, "The Bicentennial Man." But not, oddly enough, to "Satisfaction Guaranteed," which duplicates the situation of Gladia and Jander, or "That Thou Art Mindful of Him," which foreshadows one possible outcome of humaniform colonization of the Galaxy. Fastolfe discusses two other matters of consequence to the unification process: the effort by Aurorans "to produce a planet which, taken as a whole, would obey the Three Laws of Robotics," a possible foreshadowing of Gaia in Foundation's Edge (and perhaps of "Galaxia"); and of his desire to discover the Laws of Humanics. "I dream sometimes," he says, "of founding a mathematical science which I think of as `psychohistory,' . . ." |
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If it had not been for Asimov's desire to bring all of his novels into a general future history, The Robots of Dawn might not have been written. It certainly would not have been the same book. In order for the Robot novels to logically precede the Foundation stories, Asimov had to provide a logical reason why the Foundation Galaxy has no robots in it; for good measure, Asimov threw in the creation of psychohistory. In less skillful hands, these concerns might have turned the novel into a sterile exercise, but Asimov's greatest virtue as a science-fiction writer was his ingenuity, and it did not desert him here. The integration process is embedded in the mystery, and its resolution is the mystery's resolution. In a classic summation scene reminiscent of the conclusion of The Naked Sun (and a thousand formal mystery novels), Baley forces roboticist Kelden Amadiro, Fastolfe's rival in many things, including the settlement of the Galaxy, to admit that he has been in contact with Jander in an effort to learn how to construct humaniform robots and might have contributed to Jander's condition. But, as it turns out, as in The Naked Sun another being entirely is guilty; when Baley deduces that Giskard, an older, non-humaniform robot, can detect and influence human emotions (like the Mule) he also understands that Giskard must have learned of Amadiro's questioning of Jander and destroyed Jander's mind in order to protect Fastolfe. But Giskard's secret cannot be revealed, for the sake of Fastolfe and humanity. |
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In fact, the early weakness of the novel the inadequacy of the reasons for sending Baley to Aurora that disturbs the reader as much as Baley is so cleverly explained in the final scene that the weakness becomes a strength. Giskard also allowed his master to be suspected so that Baley would be sent for and Giskard could study his Earthman |
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