Friday Everything: I, Robot

Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From ‘I, Robot’ By Isaac Asimov

  

Mathematic squiggles on paper were not always the most comforting protection. *** A chain of valid reasoning can end only with the determination of truth. *** Accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason or else it is worthless. *** The material that you are made of is soft and flabby, lacking endurance and strength, depending for energy upon the inefficient oxidation of organic material. Periodically you pass into a coma and the least variation in temperature, air pressure, humidity, or radiation intensity impairs your efficiency. You are Makeshift. *** There is no master but the master. *** There’s the principle of aiding scientific advance. But don’t get me wrong. It’s not the principle that keeps me going. It’s the money they pay us. *** All normal life, consciously or otherwise, resents domination. *** It is always useful to subject the past life of reform politicians to rather inquisitive research. *** Every human being is supposed to have the instinct of self-preservation. *** Every ‘good’ human being, with a social conscience and a sense of responsibility is supposed to defer to proper authority; to listen to his doctor, his boss, his government, his psychiatrist, his fellow man; to obey laws, to follow rules, to conform to custom, even when they interfere with his comfort or his safety. *** Every ‘good’ human being is supposed to love others as himself, protect his fellow man, risk his life to save another. *** You are the only one responsible for your own wants. *** People say, “It’s as plain as the nose on your face.” But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you. *** I wouldn’t take the word of a Northerner under any circumstances. *** 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. *** There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power. *** Mankind has never had any say in its own future. It was always at the mercy of economic and sociological forces it did not understand – at the whims of climate and the fortunes of war.