History Literature / LittleLostRobot

Doctor Susan Calvin, United States Robot & Mechanical Men Corporation's expert on robotic psychology, has been summoned to Hyper base. The government project on the Hyperatomic Drive is in trouble, because a prototype robot from the [[YouAreNumberSix NS-2]] series ([[InSeriesNickname Nestor]]) has been released into a general population of Nestors. What was so special about the prototype? A modified [[ThreeLawsCompliant First Law of Robotics]]. Dr. Calvin's immediate answer is to [[KillThemAll scrap every one of the robots in that group]]. She's told she can't do that because it would be too expensive, causing knock-on contract losses. Fine; do they have the equipment to analyze the Nestors and discover which one has the unusual positronic design? Yes, but sharing the information with the people who would run the computations would ruin the company. Instead, she has to [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles find the one prototype Nestor within the group of sixty-three Nestors]] by questioning alone.

* SocietyMarchesOn: Dr. Calvin is questioning the last person to see the titular robot, and they are reluctant to repeat their exact words in front of a lady. Dr Calvin insists on precision, and her boss offers to be the visual target of the ClusterFBomb repetition. A NarrativeProfanityFilter is provided for the audience, but the superior is incensed at the language. Dr Calvin, to her credit, merely states that she knows what most of those words mean and suspects that the others are equally derogatory. In today's society, cursing people out is much more common.

First published in ''Magazine/AstoundingScienceFiction'' (March 1947 issue), by Creator/IsaacAsimov. This story shows how TheGenieInTheMachine interprets "Get Lost!". In 1977, it was edited by Creator/RosemaryBorder into a chapter book for English Language learners. It is [[{{Sequel}} followed by]] the story "{{Risk}}".

First published in ''Magazine/AstoundingScienceFiction'' (March 1947 issue), by Creator/IsaacAsimov. This story shows how TheGenieInTheMachine interprets "Get Lost!". In 1977, it was edited by Creator/RosemaryBorder into a chapter book for English Language learners.

"Little Lost Robot" has been adapted into an episode of ''Series/OutOfThisWorld1962'', as well as BBC Radio 4's ''15 Minute Drama'' (the five-part story ''Isaac Asimov's I, Robot''). This story has been republished over a dozen times, and Dr Asimov would include it in nine of his collections; ''Literature/IRobot'' (1950), ''Literature/ScienceFictionVerhalen 3'' (1964), ''Literature/MeineFreundeDieRoboter'' (1982), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/TheRobotCollection'' (1983), ''Literature/RobotDreams'' (1986), ''Literature/TheAsimovChroniclesFiftyYearsOfIsaacAsimov'' (1989), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), and ''Literature/DieAsimovChronik'' (1991).

* {{Irony}}: The NS-2 robots were made because regular robots could not be convinced to stop "rescuing" people from places with increased radiation, which is far more dangerous to positronic circuits than it is to living tissue. A single NS-2 manages to solve the problem by pointing out to the regular robots out they aren't going to help the human anyway, and will also be unable to help other people in the future. No wonder he didn't want to obey these inferior meatbags...

"Little Lost Robot" has been adapted into an episode of ''Series/OutOfThisWorld'', as well as BBC Radio 4's ''15 Minute Drama'' (the five-part story ''Isaac Asimov's I, Robot''). This story has been republished over a dozen times, and Dr Asimov would include it in nine of his collections; ''Literature/IRobot'' (1950), ''Literature/ScienceFictionVerhalen 3'' (1964), ''Literature/MeineFreundeDieRoboter'' (1982), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/TheRobotCollection'' (1983), ''Literature/RobotDreams'' (1986), ''Literature/TheAsimovChroniclesFiftyYearsOfIsaacAsimov'' (1989), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), and ''Literature/DieAsimovChronik'' (1991).

* {{Irony}}: The NS-2 robots were made because regular robots could not be convinced to stop "rescuing" people from places with increased radiation, which is far more dangerous to positronic circuits than it is to living tissue. A single NS-2 manages to solve the problemg out they aren't going to help the human anyway, and will also be unable to help other people in the future. No wonder he didn't want to obey these inferior meatbags...

Doctor Susan Calvin, United States Robot & Mechanical Men Corporation's expert on robotic psychology, has been summoned to Hyper base. The government project on the Hyperatomic Drive is in trouble, because a prototype robot from the [[YouAreNumberSix NS-2]] series ([[InSeriesNickname Nestor]]) has been released into a general population of Nestors. What was the prototype ability? Modifying [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Laws of Robotics]]. Dr. Calvin's immediate answer is to [[KillThemAll scrap every one of the robots in that group]]. She's told she can't do that because it would be too expensive, causing knock-on contract losses. Fine; do they have the equipment to analyze the Nestors and discover which one has the unusual positronic design? Yes, but sharing the information with the people who would run the computations would ruin the company. Instead, she has to [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles find the one prototype Nestor within the group of sixty-three Nestors]] by questioning alone.

* AllForNothing: Gamma fields harm human beings eventually, and robots almost immediately. When they started experimenting with the gamma fields, robots would charge into them to drag humans out, even if it would destroy the robot before they removed the human from the field.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The regular robots kept "saving" humans in gamma fields, which was a [[AllForNothing pointless sacrifice]] as the humans could safely stay for over half an hour, while the robots would be quickly destroyed as it disrupted their positronic pathways. Despite explaining how the humans could be safe (for a limited time), the robots insisted on "rescuing" them as soon as the robot was aware of the danger, because self-preservation is [[ThreeLawsOfCompliant only the Third Law, and preventing harm to humans is the First Law]]. So US Robotics manufacture robots with a modified First Law, and one of them gets lost. One of its strategies to keep itself hidden is to convince [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles the unmodified robots it's hiding with]] that [[AllForNothing sacrificing yourself without saving humans]] is a bad idea, which the humans had failed to do.

* AllForNothing: The very problem which caused the modified robots to be designed is solved by one of them explaining this trope to normally programmed robots.

** Dr. Calvin puts the robots in a situation where trying to rescue a human would (as far as they know) destroy them (prohibited by the Third Law unless trumped by the First or Second). Indeed, the lost robot does not try to rescue the human — but has cleverly convinced the other robots not to try either (that they'd be destroyed before succeeding becomes an argument to [[MurderByInaction ignore the First Law]]).

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The modified robots were created because regular ones kept breaking themselves by trying to "save" humans from areas lethal to the robots themselves. Turned out all it took was one of these robots explaining the concept of AllForNothing to unmodified ones.

* AllForNothing: The very problem which caused the modified robots to be designed was solved by one of these robots in a heartbeat.

Doctor Susan Calvin, United States Robot & Mechanical Men Corporation's expert on robotic psychology, has been summoned to Hyper base. The government project on the Hyperatomic Drive is in trouble, because a prototype robot from the [[YouAreNumberSix NS-2]] series ([[AffectionateNickname Nestor]]) has been released into a general population of Nestors. What was the prototype ability? Modifying [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Laws of Robotics]]. Dr. Calvin's immediate answer is to [[KillThemAll scrap every one of the robots in that group]]. She's told she can't do that because it would be too expensive, causing knock-on contract losses. Fine; do they have the equipment to analyze the Nestors and discover which one has the unusual positronic design? Yes, but sharing the information with the people who would run the computations would ruin the company. Instead, she has to [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles find the one prototype Nestor within the group of sixty-three Nestors]] by questioning alone.

* AffectionateNickname: The NS-2 robots are nicknamed "Nestor", a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheIliad'', where Nestor is a character who enjoys long-winded speeches.

* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: An [[YouAreNumberSix NS-2 model robot]] is told to "go lose yourself" by an angry engineer, so it hides within a shipment of 62 other NS-2 robots. Dr. Susan Calvin is angry upon learning that this particular lost robot had their [[ThreeLawsCompliant First Law]] modified to allow MurderByInaction. She conducts several tests of the 63 [[AffectionateNickname Nestor]] robots, finally tricking the lost robot into revealing itself because it could tell lethal radiation from non-lethal due to experience, and [[BluffTheImposter is suckered by an IR hazard that Dr. Calvin knew the others would see as gamma rays]].

* ShoutOut: The [[AffectionateNickname name/nickname]] for the robots in this story derive from ''Literature/TheIliad''. Nestor was a man who enjoyed sharing long-winded insights to other people, just like the robots enjoy explaining (in detail) why they disagree with their human masters. While none of the people Nestor advised snapped at him, the titular NS-2 robot annoyed their primary owner enough to get yelled at for trying to redo an old experiment.

* ShoutOut: The name/nickname for the robots in this story derive from ''Literature/TheIliad''. Nestor was a man who enjoyed sharing long-winded insights to other people, just like the robots enjoy explaining (in detail) why they disagree with their human masters. While none of the people Nestor advised snapped at him, the titular NS-2 robot annoyed their primary owner enough to get yelled at for trying to redo an old experiment.

Doctor Susan Calvin, United States Robot & Mechanical Men Corporation's expert on robotic psychology, has been summoned to Hyper base. The government project on the Hyperatomic Drive is in trouble, because a prototype robot from the [[YouAreNumberSix NS-2]] series ([[AffectionateNickname Nestor]]) has been released into a general population of Nestors. What was the prototype ability? Modifying [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Laws of Robotics]]. Dr Calvin's immediate answer is to [[KillThemAll scrap every one of the robots in that group]]. She's told she can't do that because it would be too expensive, causing knock-on contract losses. Fine; do they have the equipment to analyze the Nestors and discover which one has the unusual positronic design? Yes, but sharing the information with the people who would run the computations would ruin the company. Instead, she has to [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles find the one prototype Nestor within the group of sixty-three Nestors]] by questioning alone.

With that failure behind them, Dr Calvin designs another test, where the Third Law (self-preservation) will prevent the modified Nestor from leaping into action like the unmodified Nestors. Forewarning the Nestors turns out to have been a mistake, because it gives the modified robot an opportunity to argue the other robots into MurderByInaction (leaping to the master's rescue would mean the death of the master and robot, whereas inactivity means only the death of the master). Again furious, Dr Calvin rants at the characters who asked/encouraged the development of modified Three Laws robots.

With that failure behind them as well, Dr Calvin designs another test, [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee not sharing all the details]]. In this test, they forewarn the robots that gamma rays may be between them and a human in danger. If there weren't gamma rays, they'd leap into action to rescue the human, but if there is, they'd be destroyed. Naturally, based on the previous test, the robots should remain still.

* BluffTheImpostor: When one of the NS-2 robots with a modified version of [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Three Laws]] tries to hide in a [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles group of physically identical NS-2 robots]] with unmodified Three Laws, it has to convincingly act as if it were an unmodified NS-2 robot. Dr Calvin designs three tests to flush out the imposter robot:

** Dr Calvin puts the robots in a situation where trying to rescue a human would (as far as they know) destroy them (prohibited by the Third Law unless trumped by the First or Second). Indeed, the lost robot does not try to rescue the human — but has cleverly convinced the other robots not to try either (that they'd be destroyed before succeeding becomes an argument to [[MurderByInaction ignore the First Law]]).
** In the third attempt, Dr Calvin puts the robots in the first situation again — but the unmodified robots think it's the second, and stay still; the lost robot had been recently trained to recognize the difference between certain radiation wavelengths while the unmodified robots hadn't.

* GoneHorriblyRight: The [[OneWorldOrder world government]] has forced US Robots & Mechanical Men to create twelve robots that would work without part of [[ThreeLawsCompliant the First Law]], allowing MurderByInaction. Dr Susan Calvin points out that advanced robots possess a sort of subconscious superiority complex towards humans (they are stronger, tougher, faster, smarter, etc. than us, but are bound to value our lives above their own and obey our every command). Messing with the safeguards that make them incapable of ever expressing this "feeling" in their actions (such as by effortlessly crushing a human skull with one hand) is one of the stupidest things a person could ever do in her opinion. She's proven right when she tricks the titular robot into revealing itself and it tries to overcome the First Law so that it can strangle her to death.

* MurderByInaction: (DiscussedTrope) Dr Susan Calvin immediately conceives of this danger when informed of the modifications to the NS-2 robots. Some of the models had their [[ThreeLawsCompliant First Law]] were modified to say, approximately, "A robot may not harm a human being", which omits "...or through inaction, let a human come to harm". Dr Peter Bogert dismisses the idea that a robot with this modification can kill, and Dr Calvin then describes a robot dropping a heavy weight above a human, knowing that its quick reflexes will allow it to catch the weight in time to not harm the human; but then, [[ZerothLawRebellion having dropped the weight, it has the ability to decide not to stop the weight from killing the human]]. Dr Bogert is now almost as worried as he should be.
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: The physicist who told the titular robot to "go lose yourself" told Dr Calvin exactly what it was he said, "in one long succession of syllables." Dr Calvin, for her part also identifies the words obliquely, saying that she knew some of them as derogatory, and assumed the others were equally so.
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: An [[YouAreNumberSix NS-2 model robot]] is told to "go lose yourself" by an angry engineer, so it hides within a shipment of 62 other NS-2 robots. Dr Susan Calvin is angry upon learning that this particular lost robot had their [[ThreeLawsCompliant First Law]] modified to allow MurderByInaction. She conducts several tests of the 63 [[AffectionateNickname Nestor]] robots, finally tricking the lost robot into revealing itself because it could tell lethal radiation from non-lethal due to experience, and [[BluffTheImposter is suckered by an IR hazard that Dr Calvin knew the others would see as gamma rays]].
* RobotsThinkFaster: Dr Calvin and Dr Bogert [[AsYouKnow discuss]] that although it's possible to tell from the reaction speed whether a human is acting on instinct or as a result of conscious decision, that hesitation is too subtle for humans to detect from a robot because they can decide so quickly.

* SocietyMarchesOn: Dr Calvin is questioning the last person to see the titular robot, and they are reluctant to repeat their exact words in front of a lady. Dr Calvin insists on precision, and her boss offers to be the visual target of the ClusterFBomb repetition. A NarrativeProfanityFilter is provided for the audience, but the superior is incensed at the language. Dr Calvin, to her credit, merely states that she knows what most of those words mean and suspects that the others are equally derogatory. In today's society, cursing people out is much more common.

* YouFool: The normally extremely cold and reserved Dr Susan Calvin loses her temper with Dr Bogert, declaring him a fool for forgetting robot safety.
--> ''"Robots have learning capacity, you... you fool—" And Bogert knew that she had really lost her temper.''

** Gerald Black was having a bad day when he [[ClusterFBomb curses out his robot assistant for bothering him]]. Included in the derogatory remarks were the instructions to "go lose yourself", so it did. Attempting to prove that Mr Black was wrong, the robot found [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles a shipment of identical robots and hid with them]]. Dr Susan Calvin designs several [[BluffTheImposter tests to flush out the lying robot]]. In the last test, it tries to murder Dr Calvin because she proved she is smarter than it is.
** (DiscussedTrope) Dr Calvin is furious when she learns about the existence of robots with a modified [[ThreeLawsCompliant First Law]]. The First Law is designed to close off loopholes, but by opening a MurderByInaction loophole, Dr Calvin can immediately see ways where a robot may intentionally circumvent the First Law prohibition against murder.

With that failure behind them as well, Dr Calvin designs another test, [[UnspokenPlanGaurentee not sharing all the details]]. In this test, they forewarn the robots that gamma rays may be between them and a human in danger. If there weren't gamma rays, they'd leap into action to rescue the human, but if there is, they'd be destroyed. Naturally, based on the previous test, the robots should remain still.

This story has been republished over a dozen times, and Dr Asimov would include it in nine of his collections; ''Literature/IRobot'' (1950), ''Literature/ScienceFictionVerhalen 3'' (1964), ''Literature/MeineFreundeDieRoboter'' (1982), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/TheRobotCollection'' (1983), ''Literature/RobotDreams'' (1986), ''Literature/TheAsimovChroniclesFiftyYearsOfIsaacAsimov'' (1989), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), and ''Literature/DieAsimovChronik'' (1991).

* ShoutOut: The name/nickname for the robots in this story derive from ''Literature/Theiliad''. Nestor was a man who enjoyed sharing long-winded insights to other people, just like the robots enjoy explaining (in detail) why they disagree with their human masters. While none of the people Nestor advised snapped at him, the titular NS-2 robot annoyed their primary owner enough to get yelled at for trying to redo an old experiment.
* SocietyMarchesOn: Dr Calvin is questioning the last person to see the titular robot, and they are reluctant to repeat their exact words in front of a lady. Dr Calvin insists on precision, and the witness's superior offers to be the visual target of the ClusterFBomb repetition. A NarrativeProfanityFilter is provided for the audience, but the superior is incensed at the language. Dr Calvin, to her credit, merely states that she knows what most of those words mean and suspects that the others are equally derogatory. In today's society, cursing out a random woman is much less offensive than cursing out your superior.

* SlaveRace: Characters in the story refer to robots as "boy", a common term for African-Americans in 1947. What's more, the robots themselves use "master" instead of human.

This story has been republished over a dozen time, and Dr Asimov would include it in nine of his collections; ''Literature/IRobot'' (1950), ''Literature/ScienceFictionVerhalen 3'' (1964), ''Literature/MeineFreundeDieRoboter'' (1982), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/TheRobotCollection'' (1983), ''Literature/RobotDreams'' (1986), ''Literature/TheAsimovChroniclesFiftyYearsOfIsaacAsimov'' (1989), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), and ''Literature/DieAsimovChronik'' (1991).

This story has been republished fifteen times; ''Literature/IRobot'' (1950), ''Literature/BestSFTwoScienceFictionStories'' (1956), ''Literature/ScienceFictionVerhalen 3'' (1964), ''Literature/TheStarsAndUnder'' (1968), ''{{Magazine/Sirius}}'' (issue #19, January 1978), ''Literature/MeineFreundeDieRoboter'' (1982), ''Literature/TheCompleteRobot'' (1982), ''Literature/TheRobotCollection'' (1983), ''Literature/IsaacAsimovPresentsGreatScienceFictionStories1947'' (1983), ''Literature/TheGoldenYearsOfScienceFictionFifthSeries'' (1985), ''{{Literature/Robur}} 11'' (1986), ''Literature/RobotDreams'' (1986), ''Literature/TheAsimovChroniclesFiftyYearsOfIsaacAsimov'' (1989), ''Literature/RobotVisions'' (1990), and ''Literature/DieAsimovChronik'' (1991).