, a robot must protect its own existence
This is an interesting rule to give to the robots because it makes it so that the robots will fight for their "life" in a similar way that humans do. It seems like this rule was put in place to make sure the robots don't just destroy themselves, but giving them this thought can potentially give the robot a thought that it is valuable and with higher forms of AI, maybe it could develop it's own feelings surrounding their life.
Evidently, they were going to sell the notion of safety by not allowing them to move about, without a mahout on their shoulders all the time.
I like this hint of humans becoming more and more comfortable with robots as time moves on. It's so similar to how we are now with technology with wanting to be in control of it all the time, but slowly trusting it more and more to do work on it's own. Maybe eventually we will be trusting of AI enough to do work independent of human control.
hey may be subrobotic machines. Ten years is a long time as far as robot-types are concerned, you know." "No, they're robots. I've spent all day with them and I know. They've got positronic brains: primitive, of course."
They use the words "robot" and "machine" as if they were classes to how advanced the machine is. Even saying "subrobotic machine" makes is sound like a robot has become a title that the machine would have to earn by being intelligent enough. As far as it seems, Powell seems to define the robot as having a postronic brain, making them able to think on their own and become a new species, the robot.
Something like epilepsy, you know. It’s called “Robot’s Cramp.”
I think it's interesting how when something goes wrong in the expected system of the robots, the humans brush is aside and give it some name so that they can ignore it for the time being. It's sort of like the heads in the sand approach from Monday.
Alquist. Go. (Exit Primus and Helena L.) Adam—Eve.
This seems to be the point where Alquist gives up on humanity entirely since he now refers to Primus and Helena as Adam and Eve, seeing them as the beginning of a new world.
Helena. Doctor, has Radius a soul? Dr. Gall. (Over to couch) He’s got something nasty.
It's interesting that when the doctor is pondering the question of whether Radius has a soul, he refers to it as "something nasty". He seems to know what is going on with Radius (him developing human emotions) and might even be thinking to the future where the robots succeed humans in all areas of life.