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Escape!
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"Escape!" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published as "Paradoxical Escape" (a publisher's unwise change in the title) in the August 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted as "Escape!" (Asimov's choice of title) in the collections I, Robot (1950) and The Complete Robot (1982).
research organizations are working to develop the hyperspatial drive.
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"Escape!" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published as "Paradoxical Escape" (a publisher's unwise change in the title) in the August 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted as "Escape!" (Asimov's choice of title) in the collections I, Robot (1950) and The Complete Robot (1982).
Major Events in this Story
Many research organizations are working to develop the hyperspatial drive. The company U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., is approached by its biggest competitor that has plans for a working hyperspace engine that allows humans to survive the jump (a theme which would be further developed in future Asimov stories). But the staff of U.S. Robots is wary, because, in performing the calculations, their rival's (non-positronic) supercomputer has destroyed itself.
The U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men company finds a way to feed the information to its own computer, a positronic one known as The Brain (which is not a robot in the strictest sense of the word, since it doesn't move), without the same thing happening. The Brain then directs the building of a hyperspace ship. The Brain is a computer that is designed around the Three Laws of Robotics, however.
Powell and Donovan get on board the spaceship, and the spaceship takes off without their being initially aware of it. They also find that The Brain has become a practical joker: it hasn't built any manual controls for the ship, no showers or beds, either, and it only provides tinned beans and milk for the crew supposedly to survive on. (Really, they don't need any food: they won't be gone for long.)
Rather shortly, and after many strange visions by the crew, the ship does safely return to the Earth after two hyperspace jumps, and then Dr. Susan Calvin discovers what has happened. Any hyperspace jump causes the crew of the ship to cease existing for a brief moment, which is a violation of the First Law of Robotics (albeit temporarily), and this frightens the artificial intelligence of The Brain into irrational, childish behavior as a means of coping, and a means for insuring the survival of the crew.
Major theme
This story again relies on the differences in interpretation of the Laws of Robotics between the human members of US Robots and their mechanical creations. The important factor in this robot is its personality; it allows the supercomputer to calculate the answer to the hyperspace problem, but causes it to behave immaturely as an idiot savant when confronted with the issues of human death.
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