I, Robot Notes

(Fawcett Crest)

• IR,p6: Three Laws stated
• IR,p7: Encyclopedia Tellurica
• IR,p7: Susan Calvin born 1982
• IR,p7: 75 now => 2057
• IR,p7: 1982 -> Lawrence Robertson 1st took out incorporation papers for U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men,Inc., "the strongest industrial giant in man's history"
• IR,p7: at 20, Susan attended the Psycho-Math seminar at which Dr. Alfred Lanning of U.S. Robots demonstrated the first mobile robot to be equipped with a voice -> desc.
• IR,p7: Susan desc.
• IR,p7: Susan obtained bachelor's degree at Columbia in 2003 and began graduate work in cybernetics
• IR,p7: how robotics changed mid-20th Century work on "calculating machines"
• IR,p7: positronic brains desc
• IR,p7: Susan's work on positronic brains desc
• IR,p8: 2008 -> Susan obtains Ph.D and joins USRMM as a "robopsychologist", "the first great practitioner of a new science"
• IR,p8: "For 50 yrs, she watched..." (Susan)
• IR,p8: Susan is retiring
• IR,p8: Susan generated "a long list" of published papers and patents in her name
• IR,p8: feature articles for Interplanetary Press
• IR,p8: "The offices and factories of US Robots..."
• IR,p8: US Robots, then and now...
• IR,p9: IPP reporter 32 years old
• IR,p9: good Susan quote
• IR,p9: IPP reaches whole Solar System, potential audience 3 billion
• IR,p9: Early history of robots
• IR,p9: pocket-recorder desc
• IR,p9: Robbie dismantled the yr before Susan joined US Robots
• IR,p10: Robbie made and sold in 1996 -> sold as a nursemaid -> in days of extreme specialization
• IR,p11: Robbie's feet make a "rhythmic clump-clump"
• IR,p11: Gloria 8 yrs old
• IR,p12: metal finger (Robbie)
• IR,p12: Robbie desc
• IR,p13: "broad, flat shoulders" (Robbie)
• IR,p13: Robbie's metal skin kept at constant temp of 70 F by high-resistance coils within
• IR,p13: air-coaster
• IR,p15: 10 yrs of marriage -> Westons
• IR,p15: Lefebre-Yoshida expedition to Mars desc
• IR,p16: Robbie has been with Gloria 2 yrs => 1998
• IR,p18: NY just passed an ordinance keeping all robots off the street between sunset and sunrise
• IR,p18: jet-car
• IR,p18: visivox show
• IR,p21: taxi-gyro, private 'gyro
• IR,p22: 1998 confirmed
• IR,p22: 1/2 mi tall Roosevelt Building
• IR,p23: Museum of Science and Industry in NY
• IR,p24: talking robot desc
• IR,p25: more on talking robot
• IR,p25: Susan took notes on Gloria Weston's encounter w/ talking robot for her Physics-1 paper on "Practical Aspects of Robotics", her 1st on the subject
• IR,p26: Mr. Struthers -> General Manager
• IR,p27: In 5 yrs, not a single accident has occurred in robot factory
• IR,p29: Robbie has a neck, strength desc
• IR,p29: Robbie -> eyes glow "a deep, deep red"
• IR,p29: "Robbie" set in 1998
• IR,p29: by 2002, USR had invented mobile speaking robot, which made all non-speaking models obsolete
• IR,p29: Most world govts banned robot use on Earth for any prpose other than scientific research between 2003 and 2007
• IR,p29: Gloria had to give up Robbie at age of 15 => 2005 was when USA banned robots
• IR,p29: USRMM hit its financial low pt just about the time Susan joined them in 2007
• IR,p29: 1st speaking robots desc
• IR,p29: "Mercury Mines is now a multi-billion $ concern."
• IR,p29: Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan handled US Robots' most difficult cases in teens and twenties
• IR,p30: Second Mercury Expedition sent out in 2015
• IR,p30: financed by USR and Solar Minerals
• IR,p30: Powell's favorite platitude...
• IR,p30: Donovan a red-head
• IR,p30: Speedy
• IR,p30: Selenium
• IR,p30: Mercury known as the "jinx-world" of System
• IR,p30: radio room
• IR,p30: previous expedition 10 yrs ago
• IR,p31: radio equipment desc
• IR,p31: ultrawave equipment
• IR,p31: MacDougal located 3 Se pools for P&D: nearest is 17 mi away
• IR,p31: Powell has brown mustache
• IR,pp31-2: photocell banks used to keep Mercury Base cool (called Sunside Mining Station)
• IR,p32: photocell banks require a kg of Se
• IR,p32: Stillhead Dielectric Plate (photocell banks)
• IR,p32: spectroreflector
• IR,p32: insosuits good for no more than 20 minutes in direct sunlight
• IR,p32: conjunction mentioned; probably the best time to get off Mercury
• IR,p32: 6 robots in sublevels
• IR,p33: 7 ft high sitting on floor (old robots)
• IR,p33: old robots desc
• IR,p33: "chests must be 10 ft around." (old robots)
• IR,p33: McGuffy gears (old robots)
• IR,p33: might talk (old robots)
• IR,p33: unscrew the chest plate -> insert the 2 in sphere that "contained the tiny spark of atomic energy that was the robot's life"
• IR,p33: radio controls on more modern models?
• IR,p33: when they were new, the makers put a "good, healthy slave complex" into them (because robots were being banned)
• IR,p34: slow brain
• IR,p34: how to mount one
• IR,p34: opening to the surface 3 mi from nearest Se pool
• IR,p34: clumsy arms, blunt fingers
• IR,p35: insosuit desc
• IR,p35: robot's "saddle"
• IR,p35: doorways cleared robots' heads by a foot
• IR,p36: photocell banks' energy-conversion tech desc
• IR,p36: Speedy built for Mercury conditions
• IR,p37: temp is 80 degrees C
• IR,p37: metals that make up Mercury's atmosphere
• IR,p38: selective flexors used to vary a robot's pace
• IR,p38: SPD-13 desc
• IR,p38: SPD models were among the fastest robots turned out by USRMM
• IR,p38: 50-yr-old antique mounts?
• IR,p38: head-set radio sender
• IR,p40: old robots have dull red photoelectric eyes
• IR,p42: oxalic acid
• IR,p47: half-year later -> "Reason"
• IR,p47: Solar Station # 5
• IR,p47: Beam Director
• IR,p47: QT-1, or Cutie, has red eyes
• IR,p49: Cutie : cold metal skin (not heated like Robbie's)
• IR,p49: "1st robot who's ever exhibited curiosity as to his own existence" and "intelligent enough to understand the world outside." (Cutie)
• IR,p49: the station is a mile across
• IR,p49: 3 billion on Earth
• IR,p49: when the stations were first established...
• IR,p51: Cutie : "chromium cranium"
• IR,p51: Zeta Potential
• IR,p54: L-tube
• IR,p56: Ceres Penitentiary mentioned?
• IR,p56: Mercury Mines is a penal system?
• IR,p58: MC model robot
• IR,p58: shipped partly disassembled
• IR,p59: positronic brain shipped in a cube in an oil bath, platinum-plated skin
• IR,p59: blue metal
• IR,p59: robot started with a "vitalizing flash of high-voltage electricity"
• IR,p61: an out-of-focus beam can blast hundreds of mi2 of Earth by being off 1/100 of a ms of arc
• IR,p63: spacesuits have "glassite visors"
• IR,p64: Franz Muller relief man
• IR,p64: Donovan takes over ship controls from Sam Evans
• IR,p64: 2 weeks' vacation
• IR,p65: correction: P+D get 6 months' vacation w/ pay (after "Reason")
• IR,p65: if the robots don't pass, USR loses 10 M credits in cash and about 100 M in reputation
• IR,p65: unwritten motto of USR...
• IR,p65: Ceres Penitentiary
• IR,p66: DV-5 has 6 robots under it, gives them instruction directly through positronic fields (fields very mysterious, desc)
• IR,p66: Handbook of Robotics
• IR,p66: Powell story (or legend)
• IR,p67: Dave 7 ft tall
• IR,p67: "a half-ton of metal and electricity" "innards" desc
• IR,p67: 10 lb positronic brain and "a few quintillions of positrons runs the whole show"
• IR,p67: equipped with excellent diaphragm that robbed him of the metallic flatness of the usual robot voice
• IR,p67: photoelectric eyes
• IR,p68: Field-Test outline in the Handbook
• IR,p68: "highest function of the robot world - the solutions of problems in judgement and ethics."
• IR,p68: has about 1500 condensers, 20,000 ind electric circuits, 500 vacuum cells (call them transistors?), 1000 relays, several thousand other individual pieces
• IR,p69: McCormack-Wesley Tester can check each ind item in a robot's body within 24- 48 hrs, but only 2 are on Earth, weigh 10 tons, and are on conc founds
• IR,p70: Donovan's job for last 5 yrs has been to test new robots under actual working conditions for USR
• IR,p70: griped about it the whole time
• IR,p70: visiplate
• IR,p71: Lunar Bowl -> known for "weird ease of chorus dancers"
• IR,p71: "robot light"
• IR,p71: "...lit up like blasted radioactive Christmas trees."
• IR,p72: Tunnel 17 (Level B) -> (p74)
• IR,p73: blueprint
• IR,p73: Donovan is body specialist
• IR,p73 tech details...
• IR,p74: DV-5-2
• IR,p74: Tunnel 17, Level B
• IR,p78: "...Powell's metal-incased hand."
• IR,p80: blaster
• IR,p81: Virginia reel
• IR,p81: detonator
• IR,p82: "My third subsidiary..." was destroyed => DV-5-3
• IR,p83: 2021 -> Susan was 38 -> setting of "Liar"
• IR,p84: Alfred Lanning
• IR,p84: Mathematician Peter Bogert
• IR,p84: 34th RB model => RB-34
• IR,p84: Milton Ashe youngest officer of USRMM
• IR,p84: 75,234 operations necessary for manufacture of a single positronic brain, each depending on 5 to 105 factors
• IR,p85: Interplanetary Code was modified to allow robot models to be tested in the plants before being shipped out to space -> causes antirobot propaganda to increase
• IR,p85: story of how Ashe discovered Herbie
• IR,p85: Obermann
• IR,p86: photoelectric eyes
• IR,p86: hyperatomic motors
• IR,p87: Herbie
• IR,p87: metallic timbre => lesser diaphragm
• IR,p88: Ashe "barely 35"
• IR,p89: girl visited at the plant 1/2 yr ago -> first cousin?
• IR,p89: Peter Bogert, Ph.D.
• IR,p89: "positronic bombardment in Vac Chamber D"
• IR,p90: Herbie reads Purple Passion and Love in Space
• IR,p91: Lanning is "nudging 70", been director of plant for almost 30 yrs
• IR,p93: time integration of Equation 22
• IR,p93: Linger Effect in positronic bombardment
• IR,p93: Mitchell Translation Equation doesn't apply to hyper-imaginaries
• IR,p93: Mitchell's original paper in Transactions of the Far...?
• IR,p93: National Board
• IR,p95: Ashe will marry the girl (see p. 89)
• IR,p95: "Herbie's metal face"
• IR,p96: "metallic diaphragm...soft discords"
• IR,p99: how Susan trashes Herbie (literally)
• IR,p100: Executives' Lounge
• IR,p101: Space-Stations are already outmoded and in disuse
• IR,p101: robot-mining taken for granted
• IR,p101: only been about 20 yrs since hyperatomic motor was invented
• IR,p101: 2029 -> "Little Lost Robot"
• IR,p101: Hyper Base
• IR,p101: Hyperatomic Drive
• IR,p101: Stations of the Twenty-Seventh Asteroidal Grouping
• IR,p101: Dr. Susan Calvin -> Head Psychologist
• IR,p101: Dr. Peter Bogert -> Mathematical Director
• IR,p101: Susan had never left surface of Earth before
• IR,p101: "In an age of Atomic Power..."
• IR,p101: Major-general Kallner
• IR,p102: more than 80% of last yr's appropriations for scientific research has gone to Hyper Base
• IR,p102: USR recieving generous rental fee for use of their robots
• IR,p102: cargo vessel landed day before robot failed to report
• IR,p102: 62 robots -> 63 including NS-2
• IR,p103: NS-2 model, the Nestors
• IR,p103: all NS-2's manuf w/out serial #'s
• IR,p104: $30,000 a robot (for regular robots)
• IR,p104: how NS-2's are necessary
• IR,p104: gamma field -> a moderate gamma field has no effect on humans, but collapses a positronic brain
• IR,p105: The Nestor version of First Law stated
• IR,p106: Hyper Base swore they only wanted 12 Nestors, they would be used only at Hyper Base, and would be destroyed after Drive was perfected
• IR,p106: removal of First Law => complete instability w/ no nonimaginary solutions to the Positronic Field Equations
• IR,p106: modified First Law => reduced stability
• IR,p106: 1st Nestors were delivered to Hyper Base 9 months ago
• IR,p107: Gerald Black had taken his degree in etheric physics the yr before => 2028
• IR,p107: like his entire generation of physicists, Black works on problem of the Drive
• IR,p107: Nestor 10
• IR,p107: field generators
• IR,p107: hyper-space
• IR,p108: Kimball tube
• IR,p110: mathematical interpretation of verbal reactions of robots is one of more intricate branches of robotic analysis, desc...
• IR,p110: wire recorder (HA,HA)
• IR,p110: computers, computer mentioned?
• IR,p110: modified Nestors above normal in friendliness
• IR,p111: Planar Reactions
• IR,p111: robots have learning capacity
• IR,p112: Radiaton Building 2
• IR,p116: $2 million worth of robots (63 robots)
• IR,p119: Compartment C in the trading ship
• IR,p120: Robbins
• IR,p120: McAdams
• IR,p122: gamma ray field
• IR,p123: Radiation Room
• IR,p123: Orientation Room
• IR,p125: 2-weeks' delay
• IR,p125: government cruiser will take PB and SC home
• IR,p125: NS-2s can se many forms of radiation, but must be trained to tell difference between them
• IR,p126: Alfred Lanning at least 75
• IR,p126: finally allowed himself to be made Director-Emeritus of Research, w/ Bogert as acting Director
• IR,p126: Consolidated Robots
• IR,p126: Robertson of USR, son of the founder
• IR,p126: Consolidated Robots' deal w/ USR desc
• IR,p127: The Brain
• IR,p127: Abe Levver
• IR,p127: space-warp engine
• IR,p128: postronic brain-path
• IR,p129: Consolidated Super-Thinker
• IR,p129: The Brain desc
• IR,p130: The Brain -> 2 ft globe, containing a "thoroughly-conditioned" He atmosphere -> vibration- and radiation-free
• IR,p130: rest of the room crowded w/ attachments -> Brain's voice, arms, sense organs
• IR,p131: equivalent of 17 fat volumes of mathematical physics fed into the Brain
• IR,p132: hypership desc
• IR,p133: hypership desc
• IR,p134: airlock opened by lever
• IR,p137: no detectable acceleration on take-off
• IR,p138: message from Earth quoted
• IR,p139: food aboard ship desc
• IR,p141: throbbing can be felt on ship
• IR,p143: "I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal, you."
• IR,p144: the sun they end up near is blue-white
• IR,p144: 300,000 pc needle
• IR,p147: all was Brain's practical joke
• IR,p147: now have human colonies on planets of some of the nearer stars
• IR,p147: when Susan was born, they had just gone through the last World War -> "a low point in history--but...end of nationalism."
• IR,p148: nations began grouping themselves into Regions
• IR,p148: when Susan was born, USA was still a nation, not merely part of Northern Region
• IR,p148: change from nations to Regions stabilized economy and brought about a Golden Age
• IR,p148: The Brain was the first of the Machines
• IR,p148: Stephen Byerley died last yr
• IR,p148: Stephen Byerley 1st entered public office 2032, campaign for Mayoralty => "Evidence" set in 2032
• IR,p148: Francis Quinn
• IR,p149: Stephen Byerley "only a lawyer now"
• IR,p149: Stephen Byerley unknown 3 yrs ago
• IR,p149: Stephen Byerley "a man of force and ability,...most capable and intelligent prosecutor I have ever known."
• IR,p149: Byerley -> quiet life in a small town, college education, wife who died young, auto accident w/ a slow recovery, law school, coming to the metropolis, an attorney
• IR,p151: US Robots has never manufactured a humanoid robot => "Satisfaction Guaranteed" set later?
• IR,p152: Byerley 40 (on birth certificate)
• IR,p153: quote about Quinn
• IR,p154: frigidaire?
• IR,p155: Byerley has sunken garage
• IR,p156: John Byerley -> "the brilliant one in the family", in wheelchair
• IR,p156: "motorized buggy"
• IR,p157: "famous bold print on page one of the Handbook of Robotics"
• IR,p158: Byerley boasts: never prosecuted an innocent man, scores of people left untried because evidence against them didn't satisfy him
• IR,p159: has never demanded death sentence in closing speeches to the jury, and...
• IR,p159: humanoid robot built experimentally w/out brain by USR -> process desc...
• IR,p160: take about 2 months to make a humanoid robot
• IR,p160: positronics (an obvious word)
• IR,p161: Fundamentalists desc...
• IR,p161: Simple-Lifers
• IR,p161: ' visor (station)
• IR,p161: scanner
• IR,p161: Mrs. Hoppen -> Byerley's housekeeper
• IR,p162: Penet-radiation unit
• IR,p162: Harroway
• IR,p162: Stephen Allen Byerley address: 355 Willow Grove, Evanstron
• IR,p162: Regional Articles -> his rights desc
• IR,p162: Rights of Privacy
• IR,p163: 'visor scanner
• IR,p163: ground car
• IR,p163: x-ray reflection
• IR,p164: protective shield against Penet-radiation results in overexposed photo
• IR,p164: desc of "cripple"
• IR,p165: Fundies
• IR,p166: Lenton
• IR,p166: ultra-wave
• IR,p168: Byerley's real life desc
• IR,p170: Byerley had himself atomized when he died
• IR,p170: Byerley was a good Mayor, became Regional Co-ordinator 5 yrs later (in 2037)
• IR,p170: when Regions of Earth formed their Federation in 2044, Byerley became 1st World Co-ordinator; by that time, the Machines were running the world
• IR,p170: 2052 -> "The Evitable Conflict"
• IR,p170: Byerley was completing second term as World Co-ordinator
• IR,p171: World Steel
• IR,p171: Mexican Canal behind schedule
• IR,p171: mercury mines at Almaden
• IR,p171: Hydroponics plant at Tientsin
• IR,p171: Dr. Vincent Silver, USR's Director of Research
• IR,p172: Susan almost 70 in 2052
• IR,p174: desc of how the Machines were made
• IR,p174: the former USR Directors of Research, Alfred Lanning and Peter Bogert, are dead
• IR,p175: When Bogert died, they wanted to make Susan Director, but she refused -> did not wish the responsibility
• IR,p175: Machines lack personality
• IR,p176: Society for Humanity -> an outgrowth of the Fundamentalists
• IR,p176: Eastern Region
  • Area 7.5 million mi2
  • Pop 1.7 billion
  • Cap. Shanghai
• IR,p176: Ching Hso-Lin -> great-grandfather killed in Japanese invasion of old Chinese Republic, grandfather survived civil war of late 40's, Regional Vice-Co-ordinator
• IR,p177: Ching Hso-Lin has ancestral farm in Szechuan
• IR,p177: location of Eastern Region desc at top of page
• IR,p177: ancestral farm in Szechuan
• IR,p177: soil farming still profitable in Northern Region
• IR,p178: Eastern Region: have upward of 2000 strains of yeast in production, new strains added monthly
• IR,p178: Eastern Region: yeast their largest crop by far
• IR,p178: note to myself: hydroponics deserves its own entry
• IR,p178: desc of minerals needed for hydroponics
• IR,p178: (Eastern Region, esp.): for a successful hydroponics industry, must engage in an immense reforestation program throughout the East; must have huge wood-conversion plants to deal w/ southern jungles; must have power, steel, chemical synthetics above all
• IR,p178: yeast analogs of beef steak, iced yeast, milk
• IR,p178: chemical needs of more advanced yeast
• IR,p179: Rama Vrasayana -> his story
• IR,p180: Tropic Region
  • Area 22 million mi2
  • Pop 500 million
  • Cap Capital City
• IR,p180: Lincoln Ngoma
• IR,p180: location of Tropic Region desc
• IR,p180: Orient has 15% of land mass
• IR,p180: Tropic Region one region whose pop increase through immigration exceeded that through births
• IR,p180: capital of Tropic Region : location of Capital City, newest capital city on Earth
• IR,p180: Mexican Canal doing well half yr ago
• IR,p181: Tropic Region wiped out tsetse fly and Anopheles mosquito
• IR,p181: Tropic Region has coal and oil in untouched fields, and "minerals out of count"
• IR,p182: Francisco Villafranca desc, member of Society for Humanity
• IR,p182: Society has annual conference in NY
• IR,p183: European Region
  • Area 4 million mi2
  • Pop 300 million
  • Cap Geneva
• IR,p183: European Region location desc
• IR,p183: of all Regions, European Region alone showed a positive pop decline over past half-decade
• IR,p183: Madame Szegeczowska
• IR,p183: European Region: "7000 yrs of war"
• IR,p183: all the old cradles of civilization in European Region desc
• IR,p184: Almaden Mercury Mines
• IR,p185: Consolidated Cinnabar : headquarters at Nikolaev, controls Almaden Mercury Mines
• IR,p185: Northern Region
  • Area 18 million mi2
  • Pop 800 million
  • Cap Ottawa
• IR,p185: Vice-Co-ordinator Hiram Mackenzie
• IR,p185: desc of Northern Region's location
• IR,p186: Northern Region still economic ruler of the planet
• IR,p186: Mackenzie is a Scotsman
• IR,p188: Earth (including Antarctica)
  • (Surface) Area 54 million mi2
  • Pop 3.3 billion
  • Cap New York
• IR,p189: Northern Region has been strongest for nearly a century (or at least its component parts)
• IR,p189: 5 Directors of World Steel are members of Society for Humanity
• IR,p189: Villafranca and Vrasayana are members
• IR,p192: Susan died last month at age of 82 -> 2064