Originally published in 1945.
- Sometime after Calvin and Bogert get back from Hyper Base, the executives at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., face another problem having to do with the hyperatomic drive.
- Their competitor Consolidated wants to hire them and use their super-computer to run some data on the hyperatomic drive and will pay US Robots even if they can't come up with an answer. Why would Consolidated do that when they have their own super-computer?
- The hot gossip on that is that their super-computer broke trying to deal with this data. So it seems like Consolidated is trying to destroy US Robots's super-computer.
- That is, maybe the data contains the kind of dilemma that Calvin used to destroy Herbie in "Liar!" Or maybe the solution for building a hyperatomic drive involves breaking the First Law (22).
- Even though she kind of drove Herbie insane, we trust Calvin when she explains that a robot brain would look for an escape just like a human would when faced with a dilemma. Unfortunately, the common escapes for humans are things like delusion or alcoholism (26). (We have no idea what the equivalent of alcoholism would be for a robot. Although maybe it would involve singing Gilbert and Sullivan, like Speedy in "Runaround.")
- But US Robots's super-computer has a personality, unlike the non-positronic super-computers used by Consolidated. So Calvin comes up with a plan to feed the data to their super-computer in small chunks, hoping that his personality would allow him to hesitate before frying his brain or becoming an alcoholic.
- If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, because Calvin admits that it doesn't make much sense when you put it into words. But the math holds up (34).
- Calvin goes off to talk to their super-computer, which is a large positronic brain named "the Brain." She tells Brain the situation, and tells it not to get excited about human death because "we don't mind at all" if we die (48).
- But instead of kicking out a "does not compute" answer when he looks at the data, Brain says that he can build a spaceship with a hyperatomic drive. So he does, though Calvin is a little nervous (which is her natural state, it seems).
- Director of Research Alfred Lanning calls in Powell and Donovan to test out the spaceship.
- Powell and Donovan look over the ship. And they notice that it has no controls and doesn't seem to have an engine (109-110). So maybe Brain is broken?
- But they can't get out of the ship—it's locked (115). And when they look outside, they notice they're in space. Whoops.
- Back on Earth, Calvin is asking Brain about the whole "kidnapped test pilots" thing. Brain tells her that they are safe and should have an "interesting" time (146). ("Interesting" is one of those words people use to avoid scaring people or hurting their feelings. If your teacher tells you your paper was "interesting," ask them what they really thought.)
- There are some weird things about the spaceship. For instance, they have a radio to contact Earth, but it's only one way. So Powell and Donovan can hear people trying to contact them, but they can't talk back. (It's like Asimov knew what cellphone conversations would be like: "Hello, can you hear me? We're lost in space. Oh, we're going through a tunnel now.")
- Also, Powell and Donovan find food, but it's all baked beans and milk.
- Mathematician Peter Bogert does some math (insert cool math special effects if this were a movie) and finds out that life cannot exist within a space warp. Which is such old news.
- Back on the ship, Powell and Donovan pass out or die or start dreaming. In any case, they have a weird experience. Like Powell hears a commercial for a coffin and then has a short experience of Hell, although this version of Hell involves an announcer announcing "See if you are at the proper entrance gate. There will be plenty of fire for all" (268).
- And then they wake up or come back to life or something. They compare their different experiences and they realize that they have just died temporarily. Also, they are far, far, far out in space.
- Calvin realizes what's going on when the Brain doesn't want to talk about how people will experience the space warp.
- After Powell and Donovan come back, Calvin explains it all:
- Since Calvin told Brain that people don't mind being dead, Brain figured out that the hyperdrive would kill people—but only for a short time (319). So he could build the hyperdrive and it would hurt people only temporarily.
- However, that's still slightly against the First Law, so Brain developed a coping mechanism. But instead of escaping into alcoholism or madness, Brain became a practical joker (322). So, the lack of controls, the beans and milk, and even the experience of death—those were all jokes. Terrible, terrible, jokes.
- Then everyone at US Robots decides to play the same trick on Consolidated.