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planets. But she is destroyed in an airplane accident along with her creator. Apparently, however, she had come up with the names of three stars within eighty light-years that probably have habitable planets. Though someone may have heard her reveal the names, a search turns up no one. Finally, the eighty-year-old Susan Calvin is recalled from retirement and from the evidence comes up with the answer: Jane had spoken before she boarded the plane and was overheard by a truck driver, someone nobody would have thought of. |
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"That Thou Art Mindful of Him" was commissioned by Ed Ferman and Barry Malzberg for an anthology entitled Final Stage, published in 1974, which was intended to contain the ultimate stories on a variety of themes. Asimov's, of course, was on robots. The story also was published in Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1974. It returns to the Second Law: how can a robot judge whether or not to obey an order, i.e., what is a human being? In space the question is not as important, since most humans in space are responsible. But if robots are to be introduced on Earth, a diverse group of uninformed humans will be able to give them orders, and robots must be able to discriminate. JG ("George") models are created to make that judgment; they will begin by obeying all orders and then learn discrimination. George Ten persuades his creator to allow him to discuss the matter with George Nine. They come up with one solution to the introduction of robots on Earth: USR can make simple robots such as robot birds, bugs, and worms, that can handle ecological problems, and do not need the Three Laws because they are limited to simple actions. These robots will begin the process of accustoming humanity to robots. Meanwhile, George Ten and Nine come to the conclusion that only they are human. Eventually, they will take over. It seems the Frankenstein complex has proved not so illogical after all. With "That Thou Art Mindful of Him," Asimov appeared to have written himself out of the positronic robot series. But he was above such petty inconsistencies. |
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"The Life and Times of Multivac," New York Times Magazine, January 5, 1975, returned to the theme of the omniscient, omnipotent computer. In "The Evitable Conflict," the Machines had taken over control of everything because they knew what was good for humanity, but they kept their omniscience and omnipotence to themselves. In "That Thou Art Mindful of Him," the Machines, it was revealed, had phased themselves out, perhaps unwisely(!), after they perceived their job was done. In the present story, a few people have begun to perceive a similar takeover by Multivac as slavery. Ronald Bakst gains the confidence of Multivac and supplies it with a problem in his field of mathematical |
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