I, Robot

by Isaac Asimov

“You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason—if you pick the proper postulates. We have ours and Cutie has his.” “Then let’s get at those postulates in a hurry. The storm’s due tomorrow.” Powell sighed wearily. “That’s where everything falls down. Postulates are based on assumption and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them. I’m going to bed.” “Oh, hell! I can’t sleep!”

“If one and a half chickens lay one and a half eggs in one and a half days, how many eggs will nine chickens lay in nine days?” The Brain had just answered, “Fifty-four.”

This is one of my problems with word problems in general. I become fixated on the idea that there is half a chicken laying half an egg.

You are the only one responsible for your own wants.”

Actually, they were the Simple-Lifers, hungering after a life, which to those who lived it had probably appeared not so Simple, and who had not been, therefore, Simple-Lifers themselves.

The task of the human brain remains what it has always been; that of discovering new data to be analyzed, and of devising new concepts to be tested.

I notice that capable men are still at a premium in our society; we still need the man who is intelligent enough to think of the proper questions to ask.