introduction_page-5-8

YDS Publishing, Simplified Readers, Level B1 Plus

iRobot by Isaac Asimov, Introduction

I looked at my notes and I didn't like them.

I had spent three days at U .S. robots.

I needed more information for the articles I was going to write for my newspaper, Interplanetary

Press.

So, I went to interview Dr. Calvin, maybe she could tell me more.

Susan Calvin had been born in 1982, so she was 75 now.

At the age of 20, she had gone to a seminar by Dr. Alfred Lanning of U .S. robots.

There she saw the first robot with a voice.

Susan was a cold girl, plain and colorless, and extremely intelligent.

She had a mask -like look on her face to protect herself from the world, but as she watched

and listened to Dr. Lanning, she felt more and more excited.

She got her degree at Columbia University when she was 21 and began graduate work in

cybernetics.

Five years later, she obtained her PhD and joined U .S. robots as the first robot psychologist.

She worked there for 50 years and watched the amazing developments in technology.

Now, she was retiring from the company.

That was all I knew about her, but I needed more than that for my articles.

Dr. Calvin, I said to her, we'd like to hear some of the things you could tell us about

robots.

My newspaper reaches the entire solar system.

We have about three billion readers.

They would like to know your views on robots.

You want the human side of the story?

She didn't smile at me.

I don't think she ever smiles.

Her eyes were sharp, but not angry.

That's right, I said.

The human side of robots.

No, doctor, the human side of you.

Well, they have called me a robot, too.

She got up from her chair.

She wasn't very tall, and she looked weak.

We looked out of the window.

We could see the offices and factories of US robots.

It was like a small city.

When I first came here, she said, I had a little room in a building there.

She pointed.

It was taken down before you were born.

I shared the room with three others.

We built our robots all in one building.

We built three a week.

Now look at us.

Fifty years is a long time, I said.

She went back to her desk and sat down.

How old are you, she asked.

Thirty -two, I said.

Then you don't remember a world without robots.

There was a time when humanity faced the universe alone.

We had no friends.

Now we have robots to help us.

They are stronger than us, more faithful,

more useful.

We are not alone.

Have you ever thought of it that way?

I'm afraid I haven't.

To you a robot is a robot.

Gears and metal.

Electricity and positrons.

Mind and iron.

Made by humans.

If necessary, destroyed by humans.

But you haven't worked with them, so you don't know them.

They're cleaner, better creatures than we are.

She paused for a while.

Then she continued.

In the beginning, we made robots that were used on Earth.

They could not talk then.

Later, they became more human.

The first speaking models were about four meters high,

very simple and not very good.

We sent them out to Mercury.

They were going to build a mining station there.

But they failed.

I looked up in surprise.

They failed?

Well, they failed the first time.

If you want to learn about that, you can go to Gregory Powell.

He and Michael Donovan were the engineers who were given the most difficult cases.

Powell is living here in New York.

He's a grandfather now.

If you can tell me the story, Dr. Calvin, I can talk to Mr. Powell later.

She looked at her thin hands.

There are two or three stories, she said.

Start with Mercury, I suggested.

Well, the second Mercury expedition was sent out in 2015.

We used a new type robot, the SPD.

Gregory Powell and Michael Donovan were the engineers.