Little Lost Robot

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"Little Lost Robot"
Author	Isaac Asimov
Country	USA
Language	English
Series	Robot Series
Genre(s)	Science fiction short story
Published in	Astounding Science Fiction
Publication type	Periodical
Publisher	Street & Smith
Media type	Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
Publication date	March 1947
Preceded by	Galley Slave
Followed by	Risk

Little Lost Robot is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), Robot Dreams (1986), and Robot Visions (1990).

Little Lost Robot was adapted by Leo Lehman for the 1962 Associated British Corporation anthology television series Out of This World. It is the only episode of this series that survives in the archives today.

There was an homage to this story in the film I Robot, which otherwise bore little resemblance to the stories.

[edit] Plot summary

At Hyper Base, a military research station on an asteroid, scientists are working to develop the hyperspace drive - a theme that is explored and developed in several of Asimov's stories and mentioned in the Empire and Foundation books. One of the researchers, Gerald Black, loses his temper, swears at an NS-2 (Nestor) robot and tells the robot to "....go lose yourself." Obeying the order literally, it hides itself. It is then up to US Robots' Chief Robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, and Mathematical Director Peter Bogert, to find it. They even know exactly where it is: in a room with 62 other physically identical robots.

But this particular robot is different. It has had its First Law of Robotics modified to "No robot may injure a human being"; the normal "or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." has been omitted. Therefore, it could stand by and allow a human to be hurt, as long as it plays no active part in it. In Little Lost Robot, the Frankenstein complex is again addressed. The robot must be found because people are still by and large afraid of robots, and if they learned that one had been built with a different First Law, there would be an outcry, even though the robot is still incapable of directly harming a human. However, Dr. Calvin adds further urgency by postulating a situation whereby the altered law could allow the robot to harm or even kill a person. The robot could drop a weight on a human below that it knew it could catch before it injured the potential victim. Upon releasing the weight however, its altered programming would allow it to simply let the weight drop, since it would have played no further active part in the resulting injury.

After interviewing every robot separately and going down several blind alleys, Dr. Calvin finds a way to trick the robot into revealing itself, and it is destroyed before it can harm her (as it seemed about to do).

Before: Galley Slave

Included in: I, Robot The Complete Robot Robot Dreams Robot Visions

Series: Robot Series The Complete Robot Robot Dreams Robot Visions

Followed by: Risk

v • d • e I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Robbie • Runaround • Reason • Catch that Rabbit • Liar! • Little Lost Robot • Escape! • Evidence • The Evitable Conflict

v • d • e The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov A Boy's Best Friend • Sally • Someday • Point of View • Think! • True Love • Robot AL-76 Goes Astray • Victory Unintentional • Stranger in Paradise • Light Verse • Segregationist • Robbie • Let's Get Together • Mirror Image • The Tercentenary Incident • First Law • Runaround • Reason • Catch that Rabbit • Liar! • Satisfaction Guaranteed • Lenny • Galley Slave • Little Lost Robot • Risk • Escape! • Evidence • The Evitable Conflict • Feminine Intuition • —That Thou art Mindful of Him • The Bicentennial Man