The two science fiction short stories written by the prominent American writers Isaac Asimov and Avram Davidson are the examples of brilliancy in their genre. Both, “The Golem” written by Davidson in 1955 and “Reason” written by Asimov in 1941 share similar themes and details of the plot, although the settings and the development of the stories are very different. The stories gradually unfold the intricacies of the encounters of humans and intelligent robots, whose views on the world are very different. The meeting of two dissimilar kinds of mind produces difficulties both for the robots and people, and as the humans try to overcome them, they restore their supremacy over the creations of the human mind, the robots. Using the same theme for their science fiction stories, both Davidson and Asimov manage to come to the same solution by taking different paths in their plots.
The first story, “The Golem” revolves around the encounter of the grey-faced human-like robot, which approaches an old Jewish couple sitting on the porch of their house in the sunny afternoon somewhere in California. The couple jumps from one topic to another in their conversation, thus, making the presence of the robot unnoticeable and unimportant. While old Mr. and Mrs. Gumbeiner acknowledge the presence of a stranger and the eccentricity of his words, they barely pay any attention to the meaning of them, however seriously and pompously he can talk about his plans on destroying the humanity, including them. Only when he directly threatens Mrs. Gumbeiner, her husband slams the robot on his head, injuring him to such extent that the latter can no longer function without repair by the human. The wife examined the interior of the robot, noticing that the creature was made of springs and wires, and the couple remembered the old Jewish legend about Rabbi Löw, who created a creature called golem in Prague and gave him life by inscribing the Holy name on the creature’s forehead (Davidson, 2010, p. 307). The story ends with Mr. Gumbeiner taking a lump of clay and writing four Hebrew letters of the Holy Name on the forehead of the robot and then adjusting the unplugged wires and strings, while leaving some without repair. As the robot starts moving, the old man causally gives orders to it to obey to the couple and to cut the lawn; he shows to the robot his reflection in the mirror and explains that in case of rebel the man will erase the inscription, and the automaton will, thus, die (Davidson, 2010, p. 307-308). Then he and his wife continue their casual conversation about mundane affairs in a manner that Davidson used throughout the whole story to present the superiority of the human over the artificial intellect.
The second story, “Reason”, develops around the changing relationship between the two engineers Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan on the solar station and a robot Cutie, or QT-1, they assembled from the prefabricated parts. The latter turns out to be the first of its QT generation and the most intelligent of all existing robots. After being assembled, the robot inquires about his creator, and Powell informs the machine about their efforts that brought the robot to life (Asimov, 2010, p. 161). However, Cutie rejects this explanation stating that it is illogical, and there is no reason behind such statement. In a series of encounters with QT-1, the men are left angry and anxious about the increasing disobedience of the too intelligent artificial mind. Donovan is more nervous and quick-tempered, willing to subject the robot to his will and force him to become a human subordinate. Meanwhile, Powell is more sober-minded and rational, wanting to bring Cutie under control by good reasoning and logic. Nonetheless, as time passes, the robot fully sweeps away the explanations of the engineers and creates his own belief system, according to which only the superior creature could have created him, and decides that his Father is the energy converter, as it is the central reason for Cutie’s existence, the conclusion that the robot arrived at in pursuit of finding the answers to such questions, as “What is the center of activities here in the station? What do we all serve? What absorbs all our attention?” (Asimov, 2010, p. 165). As the machine’s reasoning grows stronger, he persuades other robot solely by the power of logic that their Master is the energy converter, and Cutie is the Prophet, in a manner that reminds of the world religions. The rebellion on the station leads to the men being denied access to the control and engine rooms, as the approaching electron storm endangers the whole population of the Earth (Asimov, 2010, p. 169). Despite all attempts to change the robot’s point of view, the men survive the storm only to find out that Cutie managed to hold the beam steady and, thus, fulfilled his function. Realizing that the robot performs great in accordance to his intended use, the men leave the station with calm understanding that they are still superior to the robot, and the threat is gone.
Both stories are narrated by a third person, although the narrator’s view in “The Golem” is limited, as the storyteller describes the external expression of emotions, rather than the feelings and thoughts of the character, and he focuses primarily on the couple’s interaction in order to show how low-valued is the presence of the robot and to highlight his illusion about his dominance over the humans. The point of view of the narrator of “Reason” is limited to two humans on board of the Solar Station 5, and although it is less limited than the one of “The Golem”, the storyteller is still not omniscient, as he only describes the feelings of people, but does not go deeper to tell about the feelings and thoughts of Cutie, the QT robot.
The time of the two stories is unknown, although it is evident that “Reason” takes place in future, because of the high technology described in the story and the revelation that there are other inhabited places besides the Earth (Asimov, 2010, p. 162). The Solar Station 5, where the whole story takes place, is described as one of many other solar stations used to feed the planets with solar energy by directing beams to them (Asimov, 2010, p. 163). Unlike “Reason”, the setting of “The Golem” is the Earth, and California, in particular. There is no specific indication of time, but the author reveals that the robot visits the couple in a sunny autumn afternoon. “The Golem” is a deviation from the hard science fiction world described by Asimov, as the only technological detail is presented in the end by the strings and wires sticking out from the robots broken body.
The similarity between the two stories is that they both contain three characters, two humans and one robot. Both robots are curious, as they both try to get to know more about other robots. However, in “The Golem” the robot realizes his nature and derives his supremacy logic from his inhuman powers. He is an evil creature, who, despite feeling superior to humans, admits, accepts and respects his Master, a human creator. Golem’s programmed goal in life is to destroy the humanity, which he does not hesitate to remind us during his contemptuous and arrogant speeches (Davidson, 2010, p. 307). Unlike the Golem, Cutie is a neutral and useful robot designed and programmed to help the humanity and is supposed to follow the three laws of robot’s existence, which are aimed to protect humans from any harm and ensure control over the mechanic creatures. Nonetheless, Cutie rejects the idea that humans, who are obviously less perfect and durable than he is, could have created him, as the idea does not fall into his reasoning patterns. Unlike the Golem, Cuties “breaks down” by not following his own program. While the Golem is dangerous by his program, Cutie is initially safe, but becomes a threat; and while the golem becomes safe by becoming broken, QT-1 becomes safe unwittingly, only when the men give up interfering in his thinking and acting. In the first story, the Golem becomes reprogrammed according to the needs of his new masters, who, thus, restore their control over the device, while in the second story humans are unable to restore control with their own efforts, as the robot is physically stronger and cannot be easily shut down; thus, they have to wait until he draws the right conclusions to serve his purpose. As the Golem does not need a solid and logical reason to destroy humanity, because he is programmed that way, Cutie claims that he accepts nothing on authority (Asimov, 2010, p. 165). In both stories, the robots claim that people are inferior creatures, but they also fail to become independent, although it seems that Cutie was on his way, but he created a God for himself to justify his existence, so he directly decided to make himself dependent not on humans, but on a different superior creature.
The difference between the human characters is also clear, because the old couple in “The Golem” takes no interest in the creature and refuses to hear his threats until the robot directly insults the wife of Mr. Gumbeiner (Davidson, 2010, p. 307). The old couple neither knows, nor is curious about the nature and strange looks of the intruder, and even after they find out he is made of wires, they still want to believe he is the golem from the legend. Conversely, the men in “Reason” are anxious about the robot’s speeches and try hard to prove their point. As the Gumbeiners remind the Golem that they can easily destroy him in case of disobedience, the Cutie unwillingly reminds humans that he is much stronger and has more power than they have, and although they threaten him, he does not take them seriously. The similarity between the two stories can also be found in the humans’ refusal to obey to the robots and be oppressed by them. While the Gumbeiners simply ignore the robot’s existence until his disrespectful words, the engineers direct their thoughts toward the methods to restore superiority and seize oppression by Cutie and other robots on board.
As the main theme of both stories is the meeting of the artificial person with the real human in a scenario of collision between two worlds, both authors managed in their own ways to project the idea that robots must always stay inferior to human beings by showing that in both worlds the creatures were designed for the human’s use and for practical purposes, and despite the threats to go out of control of people, the robots ended up serving the men. By portraying the collision of the two worlds as a potential threat to the world, Asimov and Davidson emphasized the necessity to keep the development of artificial intelligence within certain limits and restriction in order to prevent the destruction of humanity. As Asimov mentioned in “Reason”, the interplanetary laws forbid the existence of intelligent robots upon the inhabited planets, and both writers gave the readers the reason to believe in this statement (Asimov, 2010, p. 171).
References
Asimov, I. (2010). Reason. In Evans, A. B., Jr., I. C., & Gordon, J. (Eds.), The Wesleyan anthology of science fiction (pp. 160-176). Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
Davidson, A. (2010). The Golem. In Evans, A. B., Jr., I. C., & Gordon, J. (Eds.), The Wesleyan anthology of science fiction (pp. 160-176). Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
