I, Robot (literature)/Headscratchers
- In "Little Lost Robot", the titular robot hides itself in a group of other robots because its designated supervisor lost his temper and told it--profanely and at length--to get lost. Fine. But why on earth are they addressing this with complicated plans intended to identify the robot, instead of just having the supervisor address the group and tell the lost robot to stop hiding and step forward? Surely robotic programming isn't so clunky that it doesn't allow for giving the robot new orders?
- That's exactly the problem. No, I don't recall if Asimov explained why they couldn't give an overriding order, but something about the wording of the order made it so that it wasn't that simple.
- Basically, the profanity and volume of the "get lost" instruction made the robot interpret it as such a high-priority order that there was no instruction they could have given it that would have taken precedence over "get lost."
- That's exactly the problem. No, I don't recall if Asimov explained why they couldn't give an overriding order, but something about the wording of the order made it so that it wasn't that simple.
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