Page 8 - Unlikely Stories 1

Nothing Left to the Imagination

people, and to represent a last line of defense against the violation of
norms now recognized as crucial to planetary survival. If Dick hadn’t
kept his appointment today, sooner or later he would have received
their scrutiny.”
“I know that!” Dick was a little indignant. “I want Doctor Isaacs
to help me. I’ve no desire to hurt myself or anyone else. If it turns
out that my problems can’t be rectified, well, then—oh, I don’t
know. That’s the unpredictability of outcomes. Anyone could wind
up in preventive detention: rational minds use that fact as a warning
to exert as much self-control as possible. Obviously I’ve tried and
failed.”
“You have touched on an interesting issue,” said the rubot. “I
often wonder if the world would be significantly different had people
arrived at the point of the Crash with a different mix of technical
sophistication and sociobiological crudeness. Would humanity not
have had to hand the reins of power to the Schedulers? Was it
inevitable that the same intelligence producing such talented robots
would be so unable to handle its own affairs that it had no choice but
to give them absolute sovereignty?”
“It’s obvious why your failsafe brought you out of the
boondocks,” said the urbot with no trace of malice. “That sort of
speculation can have no practical application.”
“Unquestionably! But you must grant that your pursuit of
scientific discoveries adds nothing to the beauty of the city.”
“Please,” interrupted the human. “I’m trying to tell you about
my malady. I’ve got a good grasp of history, and I have no
philosophical ax to grind. The freedom versus responsibility question
has been answered. What remains to be determined, for every mind,
biological or mechanical, is purely therapeutic. Given one’s
disabilities—unique or not—within the context of the world that
now exists, what can be done to ameliorate them? It sounds like you
robots seek homeostasis by means of tweaking a known set of
variables. I’m not so certain about myself. Don’t you see it? Your
imagination takes you in wonderful directions—because it was
designed to do that. Mine was not. It can go anywhere. But now its

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