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"The Evitable Conflict" is a science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
. It first appeared in the June 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and subsequently appeared in the collections I, Robot
I, Robot

I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies....
 (1950), The Complete Robot
The Complete Robot

The Complete Robot is a collection of science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which were previously collected in books I, Robot, The Rest of the Robots, and other anthologies....
 (1982), and Robot Visions
Robot Visions

Robot Visions is a collection of science fiction short stories and factual essays by Isaac Asimov. Many of the stories are reprinted from other Asimov collections, particularly I, Robot and The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories. However, the stories in I, Robot were edited to make a more cohesive whole; Robot Visions re...
 (1990).

Chapter 9
The "Machines", powerful positronic
Positronic brain

A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Its role is to serve as a central computer for a robot, and, in some unspecified way, to provide it with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans....
 computers which are used to optimize the world's economy and production, start giving instructions that appear to go against their function.






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"The Evitable Conflict" is a science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
 short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
. It first appeared in the June 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and subsequently appeared in the collections I, Robot
I, Robot

I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies....
 (1950), The Complete Robot
The Complete Robot

The Complete Robot is a collection of science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which were previously collected in books I, Robot, The Rest of the Robots, and other anthologies....
 (1982), and Robot Visions
Robot Visions

Robot Visions is a collection of science fiction short stories and factual essays by Isaac Asimov. Many of the stories are reprinted from other Asimov collections, particularly I, Robot and The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories. However, the stories in I, Robot were edited to make a more cohesive whole; Robot Visions re...
 (1990).

Chapter 9


The "Machines", powerful positronic
Positronic brain

A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Its role is to serve as a central computer for a robot, and, in some unspecified way, to provide it with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans....
 computers which are used to optimize the world's economy and production, start giving instructions that appear to go against their function. Although each glitch is minor when taken by itself, the fact that they exist at all is alarming. Stephen Byerley, now elected World Co-ordinator, consults the four other Regional Coordinators and then asks Susan Calvin
Susan Calvin

Dr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character from Isaac Asimov's Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. She was the chief Robopsychology at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men., the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century....
 for her opinion.

They discover that the Machines have generalized the First Law
Three Laws of Robotics

In science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic brains appearing in his fiction must obey....
 to mean "No robot may harm humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm". (This is similar to the Zeroth Law which Asimov developed in later novels.) Dr. Calvin concludes that the "glitches" are deliberate acts by the Machines, allowing a small amount of harm to come to selected individuals in order to prevent a large amount of harm coming to humanity as a whole.

In effect, the Machines have decided that the only way to follow the First Law is to take control of humanity, which is one of the events that the three Laws are supposed to prevent. Asimov returned to this theme in The Naked Sun
The Naked Sun

The Naked Sun is the second novel in Isaac Asimov's Isaac Asimov's Robot Series....
 and The Robots of Dawn
The Robots of Dawn

The Robots of Dawn is a "whodunit" science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. It is part of Asimov's Isaac Asimov's Robot Series....
, in which the controlling influence is not a small conspiracy of Machines but instead the aggregate influence of many robots, each individually tasked to prevent harm.