EVIDENCE (SUMMARY) BY ISAAC ASIMOV (1946)

The year is 2057, a 75 year old Dr Susan Calvin is retiring from Us. Robots and
Mechanical Men, where she has worked for her entire adult life as a
robopsychologist. A reporter from the Interplanetary Press comes to interview her
about her time at the company. She tells a series of stories that trace her
expirience with positronic robots over time, emphasizing how she considers these
robots to be a "cleaner beeter breed" than humans.

After several stories (they are a total of 9, starting in 1990), what Calvin really
wants to talk about right now isn't the Machines, but Stephen Byerley, who ran for
mayor in 2032.

It's 2032. The story starts with Francis Quinn, who is a political king-maker. He's
not a politician—he's a guy who works behind the scenes to make sure that the
guy he likes gets elected.

And Quinn doesn't like Stephen Byerley. He has an original idea of how to keep
Byerley from getting elected: he's going to spread rumors that Byerley is a robot.
(Which people might believe since Byerley never eats or sleeps in public. After we
read this story, we started sleeping in public just in case.)

Quinn needs something on Byerley because his past is otherwise scandal-free.

Byerley has had a regular life, except for one car accident that he only slowly
recovered from.

Quinn goes to Alfred Lanning because he wants to get US Robots involved. Quinn
wants them to get evidence to show that Byerley is a robot. Quinn points out that
the publicity could be damaging to US Robots even if Byerley isn't a robot.
(Remember, robots aren't allowed on Earth and some people are still afraid of
them.)

So Lanning calls Calvin in and they call Byerley.

Calvin notes that robots are very different from men because "Robots are
essentially decent" (87).
Byerley tells them that he's not going to try to disprove Quinn's accusation, but is
going to turn Quinn's accusation against him. We have no idea what that means,
but it sounds good.

Back home, Byerley talks to a crippled man named John about a plan because
John is "the brilliant one in the family" (113). But we don't get to hear the plan.
It's like in a movie where people start to talk about the plan and all we hear is
whispering.

Back at the office, Calvin notes that there are two forms of evidence they can use
to see if Byerley is a human: they can dissect him (or use x-rays to see inside him
—which is the less messy option); or they can see if he breaks one of the Three
Laws of Robotics (133). (Like, if he hurts a human, then he can't be a robot.)

Unfortunately, as Calvin notes, the Three Laws only work one way: if Byerley
breaks them, he's human; but if he doesn't break them, he could either be a robot
or "a very good man" (138).

As Calvin notes, the Three Laws of Robotics "are the essential guiding principles of
a good many of the world's ethical systems" (138).

Quinn, Lanning, and Calvin bat around some other ideas about how to prove
Byerley is a robot. Like his job: Byerley's the DA, so he's responsible for
prosecuting people. Could a robot do that? Or would that break the First Law?
This gets us to the interesting question of whether a robot could kill one person to
save many people (answer: yes, it could, but then it would probably go crazy
(150)).

But the end result of this conversation is that there's no way to tell if Byerley is
human or robot through his actions: he might be a robot or he might be a good
human.

After Lanning admits that it's possible to grow some cells into a human shape over
a robotic interior in about two months, Quinn decides to publicly accuse Byerley
of being a robot.

After that, no one wants to talk about Byerley's policies or ideas, and everyone
wants to talk about whether or not he's a robot. (Today we might ask, "where's
the birth certificate?" In the future, they'll ask, "where's the human certificate?")

Quinn tries to get evidence (an x-ray picture), but can't (Byerley wears a protective
shield). So, instead, he calls Byerley and lays out his theory: the cripple named
John is the real Stephen Byerley, a lawyer and biologist; and after the car accident,
he built a replacement robot for himself (221). We were all thinking that, right?

John is actually out in the country, resting, for a few months, but he comes back a
week before the election. Just in time to see Byerley give a live speech to a crowd.

The crowd heckles Byerley and one guy makes his way on to the stage. (Byerley
actually lets this guy come up to ask a question.) When he's on stage, the guy
insults Byerley (which is usual for politics) and dares Byerley to hit him to prove
that he's not a robot (also usual for politics where we're from).

So Byerley does hit him. And Calvin says to reporters that that proves Byerley is
human (271) because he broke the First Law.

And that's how Byerley wins the election. He confesses to Calvin that that was his
plan all along: let Quinn make this election totally about whether he was a robot
or a human and then—pow—prove that he was a human in the easiest way
possible.

Calvin is disappointed because a robot politician would be totally awesome—

incorruptible, only acting to help people, etc.

And then Calvin notes that Byerley could still be a robot if the guy he hit was also
a robot. After all, if Quinn's theory is right, and "John" made a robot to replace
him, then "John" could make a simpler robot during his two months in the
country.

That's the way this story ends—without any real evidence.

Back in the present day, Calvin notes to the interviewer that Byerley was atomized
after he died, so there's no way to prove whether he was a robot or a human. But
he was a good politician—he was a good mayor, then a good regional co-
ordinator, and finally, in 2044, he was good as the first World Co-Ordinator, when
the Machines were helping to run the Earth (305).

Which reminds her of this story about the Machines that took place in 2052,
during Byerley's second term as World Co-Ordinator.

CHARACTERS:

1. Harroway: A man hired by Francis Quinn to investigate Stephen Byerley.

2. Francis Quinn: A politician who is running for a mayoral office in “Evidence.”

Quinn suspects that his political rival, Stephen Byerley, may be a robot, and
so he enlists the help of Calvin and Lanning in order to help him prove this
theory. The irony of this smear campaign is that Quinn proves himself to be
far less ethical than Byerley (whom Calvin does suspect to be a robot)
during the campaign, and therefore he prompts readers to wonder whether
a robot might be better suited for that kind of job. Ultimately, Byerley is
able to convince the public that he is not a robot, and Quinn loses the
election.

3. Stephen Byerley: A politician running for mayoral office in “Evidence.” His

political opponent, Francis Quinn, accuses him of being a robot. Quinn
employs Calvin and Lanning to investigate the situation, citing that Byerley
never eats, drinks, or sleeps. Though Calvin agrees that Byerley is a robot,
she is never able to prove it. Byerley eats an apple in front of the roboticists,
though this doesn’t prove anything—Calvin says that he could simply be a
very advanced robot. Byerley also does several things that make them
question his innocence: he actively prevents them from taking X-rays of his
insides to see if he is a robot, and he also lives with a paralyzed teacher of
his named John, whom Quinn claims is the real Stephen Byerley. Ultimately,
Byerley is able to convince the public that he is human by hitting another
person and violating the First Law, and thus wins the election. However,
Calvin later argues that the person he hit could also have been a robot,
which would have allowed him to avoid breaking the First Law. Byerley’s
case proves just how advanced the robots have become, and also how they
can be more ethical than humans, since Quinn ironically goes to unethical
lengths in his attempts to prove that Byerley is a robot. In the following
story, “The Evitable Conflict,” Byerley has become a World Coordinator and
works with Calvin once more to try and deduce errors in the Machines that
regulate the world’s economy.