Diane Goullard

Robotics Law One: "Do no harm to people or property." Intelligent machines have a problem: What is harm? Dr. Maynard Little thinks he may have solved it. He designs the ultimate robotic testing machine for his company's products. It reads English product specifications, builds complete test suites from them, and finally speaks English well enough so people don't laugh too often. But then they order it around. To do no harm it tests people to find out which of them it can trust about what. Things get dicey. The turning point is a Tv round-table discussion where the machine upsets everyone except perhaps the French. Dr. Little-under pressure from Chairman Bozworth to make money with it-takes steps to make the machine more marketable and less controversial. These efforts succeed except that Doc hadn't tested his fix, which later creates new problems. And other interests want to exploit or control-or steal-the Tm tech. So why does Doc Little wake up in a prison that looks like a sitting room?