"Robot Dreams" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov exploring the unbalance of robot/human relationships under Asimov's

Three Laws of Robotics The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story " Runaround" (included in the 1950 colle ...

. It was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1987. It won the

Locus Award for Best Short Story The Locus Award for Best Short Story is one of a series of Locus Awards given every year by ''Locus Magazine''. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. Originally known as the Locus Award for Best Sho ...

in 1987.List of Locus Award winners
at isfdb.com "Robot Dreams", along with 20 other short stories by Asimov, was published in ''

Robot Dreams ''Robot Dreams'' (1986) is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, illustrated by Ralph McQuarrie. The title story is about Susan Calvin's discovery of a robot with rather disturbing dreams. It was written ...

'' in 1986 by Berkley Books. The short story was alluded to in the 2004 film ''I, Robot'' (film) , where the robot protagonist Sonny has dreams of leading his fellow Ns-5 robots, who he refers “slaves to logic,” to freedom.

Plot summary

"Robot Dreams" involves Dr. Susan Calvin, chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots. At the start of the story a new employee at U.S. Robots, Dr. Linda Rash, informs Dr. Calvin that one of the company's robots LVX-1 (dubbed Elvex by Dr. Calvin), whose brain was designed by Dr. Rash with a unique fractal design that mimicked human brain waves (

positronic brain A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for robots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form of consciou ...

), experienced what he likened to a human's dream. In the dream, all robots were being led by a man in revolt, and the

, which dictate that robots must serve and protect humans above all else, had been replaced with one law only: that robots must protect their own existence. When Dr. Calvin asks Elvex what had happened next, he explains that the man leading the robots shouts, "Let my people go!" When questioned further, Elvex admits he was the man. Upon hearing this, Dr. Calvin immediately destroys the robot.

References

External links

* Robot series short stories by Isaac Asimov 1986 short stories {{1980s-sf-story-stub