Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Robbie

"98...99...100!" Glory let go of her chubby hands that covered her eyes, and stood in the sun blinking. Carefully leave the tree and take a few steps forward, thinking that you can see everything around you clearly. She stretched her neck to look carefully at the dense bushes on the right, and then walked away a few steps, staying away from the tree, and then looked into the depths of the bushes. In the hot noon, the surroundings are quiet, only the buzzing of insects and the chirping of a tireless bird break the tranquility here.Glory pouted, "Hmph, he must be hiding at home, I've told him a million times, it's not fair."

She tightly closed her two small lips, frowned angrily, raised her legs and walked towards the two-story building at the other end of the boulevard.When Glory heard the rustling sound mixed with even metal footsteps from behind, it was already too late, and she turned around hastily.Robbie was seen running full speed towards the tree from his hiding place. Glory yelled desperately, "Stop! Robbie! It's not fair, Robbie! You promised me you wouldn't go until I found you!" Of course, her little feet couldn't keep up with Robbie's big strides, but when she was 3 meters away from the big tree, Robbie suddenly slowed down, and Glory rushed past it desperately, panting for breath. One touched the trunk.She turned happily to face the faithful Robbie, not thanking him for his secret concessions.Instead, it laughed loudly that it would not run.

"Robby can't run!" exclaimed eight-year-old Glory at the top of her voice. "I beat him every run, every run!" she repeated in a high-pitched, monotonous voice. Robbie, of course, didn't answer.However, it made a gesture to run away, and Glory immediately chased after it.Robbie cleverly avoided the little girl, causing her to chase left and right, clawing at the air, trying to catch her.She couldn't breathe with laughter and shouted, "Robbie! Stop!" Suddenly Robbie turned and grabbed her.Lift it up in the air and turn in a circle.Glory suddenly felt that the world was spinning, the blue sky was at her feet, and the green trees were hanging upside down from the sky... Then Glory found herself standing on the grass again.She leaned against Robbie's leg, gripping hard on his metal fingers.

After a while, Glory caught her breath.She tidied up her messy hair, unconsciously imitating her mother's movements, and turned around to see if the clothes were torn.Then, he slapped Robbie with his small hand. "You are bad! I will hit you!" Robbie shrank back and covered her face with her hands, so she had to change her words and say, "Ah. Don't be afraid! Robbie, I won't hit you. Now it's my turn to hide. Your legs are longer than mine, promise not to let me go!" run!" Robbie nodded—a parallelepiped head with rounded corners.The head and body are connected by a very short soft device, and the body is also rectangular.But much bigger than the head.Robbie obediently turned to the big tree, and closed the thin metal eyelids, covering the photoelectric eyes.An even ticking sound can be heard inside its body.

"Listen: No peeking, no small numbers!" Glory ran to hide after finishing speaking.Robbie was very accurate in counting the time, and when he counted to a hundred, he opened his eyes.Those red eyes looked around the grass.For a moment, his eyes rested on a small piece of calico exposed behind a stone.Robbie took a closer look, and after seeing that Glory was really hiding behind the stone, he walked slowly towards her hiding place.At the same time, it remained between Glory and the big tree until Gezhili was completely exposed in front of it, and it couldn't pretend to be invisible no matter what.Robbie held out one hand to her, and patted his leg loudly with the other.Glory walked out pouted.

"You must have been peeking!" she exclaimed clearly unfairly, "and I'm tired of playing hide and seek too, I want to ride." But because Robbie had misjudged it just now, he carefully sat down on the grass and shook his heavy head.Glory immediately changed her tone, pleading softly, "Hey, Robbie! I didn't mean to say you peeked. Now, let me ride!" However, Robbie was not so easy to convince.It looked at the sky stubbornly, and shook its head even more resolutely, "Robby! Let me ride!" Her pink hands hugged Robbie's neck tightly.Later, she suddenly became emotional and walked away.

"Then I'm going to cry!" Her face is elongated on purpose.But hard-hearted Robbie paid no heed to the threat, and shook his head a third time. Glory decided to use her trump card: "If you won't let me ride," she yelled, "I'll never tell you a story again! Just do it, never again!" This ultimatum forced the robot to surrender immediately and unconditionally.It nodded so hard that the metal neck rang.So it carefully sent the girl to his broad and flat shoulders. Glory's threatening tears faded away, and she even cried out with joy.Robbie's metal "skin" is kept at 21°C by electric heating elements, so it's pleasant to the touch.

She kicks the robot's chest with her little feet, and she can make a nice thumping sound. "You're the plane, Robbie! You're a big silver-gray plane and you gotta stretch your arms out." This logic is beyond reproach.Robbie's arms became wings, and it was the gray plane itself.Glory turned its head violently, tilting its body to the right.The robot made a sharp turn.Glory installed the "engine" on the plane: "Da da..." Then fired: "Boom! Boom! Boom!"... The pirates chased them behind, and the cannon fire was like a storm, knocking down a group of pirates. "One lap... two more laps!" she cried.Then Glory yelled, "Hurry up, guys! We're running low on ammo!" she daringly aimed at the imaginary enemy from the robot's shoulder.At this time, Robbie turned into a flat-headed spaceship again, rushing through space at extreme acceleration.It led the girl across the lawn, toward the thicker grass.Once there it brakes suddenly.The flushed little rider screamed and threw her onto the soft green grass carpet.

Glory gasped and said with great interest, "Oh, that's interesting!  …" Robbie let her catch her breath and pulled a lock of her hair lightly. "What do you want?" Glory asked, deliberately widening her eyes and pretending not to understand. No naive little trick could fool the big "nanny" at all.Robbie stroked her locks again, a little harder. "Ah, I know, you want to hear stories." Robbie nodded quickly. "Which story is it?" Robbie made a semicircle in the air with his finger. The girl objected, "It's that Cinderella story again. I've told you a million times and you haven't gotten tired of it? It's for kids!"

Robbie's iron hand drew a semicircle again. "okay then." Once Glory was comfortable, recalling the plot of the story (with embellishments, of course), she began: "Are you ready? Long, long ago there was a beautiful little girl named Ella .She has a vicious stepmother, and two ugly and cruel sisters..." When Glory talked about the most exciting part: "The bell in the night has struck. Everything has become broken again Rotten as it is..." Robbie was listening intently with wide, shining eyes, when the story was interrupted. "Glory!" cried a woman's exasperated voice. She had called it several times, and her impatience had turned into restlessness.

"Mum called me," Glory said unhappy. "Better take me home, Robbie!" Robbie complied at once, something reminding him that Mrs. Weston's orders were not to be neglected.Glory's father was seldom at home during the day, except on Sundays (which happened to be Sunday), and when he was, he was evidently a mild-tempered and good-natured man.Only the mistress frightened Robbie, so he always tried to get away from her. Mrs. Weston saw that the two of them had just risen from the grass, and went back to the door to block them. "I'm getting hoarse, Glory," she said sharply. "Where have you been?" "I'm with Robbie," Glory replied timidly. "I was telling him about Cinderella and I forgot to eat." "Unfortunately, Robbie also forgot to eat." She seemed to suddenly think of the robot, turned to face it, and said, "You can go, Robbie! Now she doesn't need you, when I don't call you. Don't come," she added rudely. Robbie turned and headed for the door, hesitating again because he heard Glory defending him: "Wait a minute, mother, let him stay! I haven't finished the story yet, I promised to tell him It's Cinderella, and I haven't had time to finish." "Glory!" "I'm telling the truth, Mother. He'll just sit there quietly, in a chair in the corner, and do nothing. Isn't it, Robbie?" Robbie nodded its heavy head. "Glory! If you don't obey, I'll make you lose Robbie for a week!" The girl looked at the ground. "Well, never mind. He loves to hear the Cinderella story, and I haven't finished it. He likes it so much..." A disappointed Robbie walks out.And Glory was in tears... George Weston felt well, as he always did: well after lunch on Sunday.Big and tasty family style lunch!Leaning on a soft old sofa, reading that day's Times, with loafers on.Take off the starched village clothes and put on pajamas, why do you feel uncomfortable? ! So when his wife walked in, he was upset.After ten years of living together, he was still very much in love with him and of course always happy to see her.But this Sunday lunch break was sacrosanct to him.What he needed at this moment was two or three hours of complete isolation from the world.So he focused his attention on the report in the latest news about the expedition to Mars by Li Feibuer and others (this time they took off from the moon station, and it seems that they can fly there).Pretend not to see her. Mrs. Weston waited two minutes patiently, and then another two minutes impatiently.Finally couldn't help it. "George!" "Yep……" "George, listen to me! Could you put down the newspaper and look at me?" The newspaper fell to the floor, and Mr. Weston turned his troubled face to his wife. "What's the matter, dear?" "You know, George, it's about Glory and this horrible machine . . . " "What horrible machine?" "Please don't pretend, don't you see what I mean? I mean the robot, the one that Glory named Robbie. The robot doesn't leave her for a minute." "But why did the robot leave her?" It was there for this task, and it wasn't a scary machine anyway.This is the best robot money can buy.I remember it so well that it cost me half a year's salary.But it's also worth the money.It's much smarter than half my staff. " He reached out to pick up the newspaper, but his wife was even more powerful and snatched the newspaper away. "Listen to me, George! I don't want to entrust my child to a machine. It's none of my business whether it's smart or not, it has no soul and no one knows what's in its head. Don't let all the metal stuff Go babysit!" Weston frowned: "When did you have this opinion? It has been with Glory for more than two years, and I didn't find anything uneasy about you before." "It was a different story at first. It was a new thing, and it saved me a lot of trouble, and Dan is still so fashionable... But now I don't know. The neighbors say..." "What does this have to do with the neighbors? Listen to me! Robots are infinitely more reliable than babysitters. You know, Robbie was made for babysitting, and his "mind" activities were designed for that task. It can't be unreliable, unchild-friendly, and unkind. It's built that way. Not every real person has all that goodness." "But what if something goes wrong, say..." Mrs. Weston couldn't explain; her knowledge of the inner workings of a robot was rather vague. "Let's say some small part breaks, and this horrible machine goes mad, and..." She didn't have the strength to finish what was clearly a clear thought. "Nonsense." Weiss retorted, and he shuddered involuntarily. "This is ridiculous. When we bought Robbie, we talked about the first law of robotics. You remember, according to the first law, a robot must not injure a human being. Only a small violation As the first law intends, the robot will immediately and automatically fail. There can be no other situation, this is calculated by strict mathematics. In addition, the technicians of "American Robotics" come to us twice a year to check all the mechanisms , nothing will happen to Robby. You and I are probably a little crazy. Besides, how are you going to take the robot from Glory?" "He reached for the newspaper again, but in vain, and his wife angrily threw the newspaper aside towards the open door." Mr. Stratz put on his glasses and coughed, "This way, please! " His words fell silent as he accompanied the Westons down the long corridor and down the stairs.But when they came to the well-lit room, full of clanging metal, Stratz's chatterbox opened like a floodgate, and the chatter began to flow with greater vigor. "Look!" he said proudly, "all robots! There are five people just looking after them, and people don't even have to be in this room. There hasn't been a single malfunction in the five years since we started the experiment. Of course, here The assembled robot is relatively simple, but..." The voices of the administrators had long been mingled with a hypnotic hum to Glory.She felt the whole visit was boring and purposeless. Although there were many robots around, there wasn't even one resembling Robbie, and she looked with unabashed disdain at her finding that the room was completely deserted.Then her gaze fell on six or seven robots working at a round table in the middle of the room.Her eyes widened in surprise and disbelief, the room was so big she couldn't quite believe it, but there was a robot that looked like... like... yes, it was him! "Robby!" There was a scream from her in the air.A robot at the table shivered and dropped the tool in his hand. Glory was wild with joy.Before her parents could stop her, she slipped through the protective railing, jumped down gently, onto the floor more than a meter lower, and ran towards her Robbie, waving her hands. The three adults were petrified.Because they saw something that excited Glory didn't.A giant automatic tractor was rumbling towards her. After a fraction of a second, Weston came to his senses, but this fraction of a second decides everything.Glory could no longer catch up.Weston climbed over the fence in a split second, in what was clearly a hopeless attempt.Mr. Stratz frantically waved his hands, gesturing to the workers to stop the tractor.But these workers are also ordinary people.It will take some time for them to execute this order. Only Robbie acted accurately and without hesitation, he strode forward with his metal legs and flew towards his little master.It was too late to say, but it was fast at that time. It hugged Glory without slowing down, so fast that she couldn't breathe.Weston didn't understand what was happening in front of him, but felt that Robbie had rushed past him, so he stopped at a loss.Then the tractor passed where Glory had been standing, half a second behind Robbie.After rushing for more than three meters, the car squeaked and stopped. Glory gasped.Breaking free from her parents' embrace, she ran happily to Robbie.Only one thing happened to her - she found her friend. But the relief on Mrs. Weston's face soon changed to suspicion.She turned to her husband.Regardless of the excitement and messy hair, he asked aggressively: "Is this what you arranged?" George wiped sweat from his brow.His hands were still shaking, and his trembling lips could only send out a forced smile. Mrs. Weston went on: "Robbie wasn't designed to work in a factory. You purposely arranged for him to sit here and Glory found him. That's your intention." "Yes, it was me," said Weston, "but, Grace, I never knew the frenzy of the meeting! And Robbie saved her life--you gotta admit it. You can't send it away again." .” Grace Weston thought for a moment.Distraught, she looked at Glory and Robbie. Glory was hugging Robbie's neck so tightly, if this was a human being, it would be suffocating.The girl felt extremely happy, bent over the robot's ear, and excitedly said many silly things.Robbie used his chrome-steel hands that twisted five centimeters of steel into bows.Gently strokes the girl.Its eyes glowed dark red. "Well," said Mrs. Weston at last, "let Robbie stay with us until the rust wears it out." Susan Calvin shrugged her shoulders: "Of course, it hasn't developed to this point yet. All of the above happened in 1998. By 2002, a walking robot that could talk was invented. Naturally, the robot model that can't speak has been Obsolete. The total opposition to robotics has reached the end of its patience in the face of this. Between 2003 and 2007, the governments of most countries banned the use of robots on Earth. Except for scientific purposes, whatever Nothing is allowed." "So Glory ended up breaking up with Robbie?" "I'm afraid so. All in all, I think she'll be more bearable at 15 than at 8. But it's all stupid and unnecessary. When I was working on American Robotics in 2007, the company The financial situation is in jeopardy. At first I even thought that I would lose my job in a few months, but finally I found a way out: we set out to open up markets beyond the earth." "So things got better after that?" "Not really. At first we tried to use models that were available at the time, such as these first talking robots. They were about 3.5 meters tall, clumsy, and not very useful. We sent these robots to Mercury to help build mines. , but they can't do it." I glanced at her in surprise: "Is this really the case? But now "Mercury Minerals Company) is a big concern, with a capital of hundreds of millions." "Yes, it is now. However, it was only after the second attempt. If young people want to hear about it, I would recommend interviewing Gregory Powell. He and Michael Dono Wan had some of the toughest jobs in our company in the 1900s and 20s. I haven't heard from Donovan in years, but Powell lives here, New York City. He's a grandpa—I It's hard to get used to the idea of ​​remembering him when he was younger. Of course, I was younger then..." I tried to cut her off: "If you can, tell me in general terms first. "Doctor. Then I'll ask Mr. Powell to make an addition." (I seemed to be doing the right thing.) She put her slender fingers on the table and stared. "There are two or three stories," she said, "of which I know very little." "Just start with Mercury," I suggested. "Okay then. The second expedition to Mercury appears to be in 2015. It was a reconnaissance expedition funded by American Robotics and Sun Minerals. The expedition was led by Gregory Consisting of Powell, Michael Donovan, and a prototype of a new robotic experiment..."