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Little Lost Robot
30 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1947
3 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,341 books27.7k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 25, 2025
Spot the difference.
Dr. Susan Calvin and Peter Bogert are sent on a especial mission to a distant asteroid, to the Hyper Base station where the newly developed hyperspace drive is being investigated, to solve the case of a missing robot, a very especial secret robot, the kind nobody must learn about, ever. The only problem is, it's completely identical to other 62 NS series robots.
I guess this was ok. My second Dr. Calvin story and getting the feeling this might possibly turn into another "Powell and Donovan" trilogy, if not longer. I suppose Dr. Susan Calvin is ok all in all, usually grumpy and frequently obnoxious like Powell and Donovan, but at least there seems to be a bit more depth in her, especially considering the Liar! story. Wildly less likable than Bridget Moynahan in the I, Robot movie though.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1942] [25p] [Sci-Fi] [Not Recommendable] [Get lost]
-----------------------------------------------
★★★★★ Liar!
★★★☆☆ Robot # 0.1 - I, Robot <--
-----------------------------------------------
Encuentra la diferencia.
La Dra. Susan Calvin y Peter Bogert son enviados en una misión especial a un distante asteroide, a la estación Hyper Base donde se está investigando el motor hiperespacial recientemente desarrollado, para resolver el caso de un robot desaparecido, un robot muy especial, y secreto, del tipo que nadie debe enterarse, jamás. El único problema es, que es completamente idéntico a otros 62 robots de la serie NS.
Creo que esto estuvo ok. Mi segunda historia de la Dra. Calvin y con la sensación de que esto podría convertirse en otra trilogía "Powell y Donovan", si no es que más. Supongo que la Dra. Susan Calvin está bien dentro de todo, generalmente gruñona y frecuentemente desagradable como Powell y Donovan, pero al menos ella parece tener un poco más de profundidad, especialmente considerando la historia ¡Mentiroso! Aunque me resulta mucho menos agradable que Bridget Moynahan en la película Yo, Robot.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1942] [25p] [Ciencia Ficción] [No Recomendable] [Piérdete]
-----------------------------------------------
Dr. Susan Calvin and Peter Bogert are sent on a especial mission to a distant asteroid, to the Hyper Base station where the newly developed hyperspace drive is being investigated, to solve the case of a missing robot, a very especial secret robot, the kind nobody must learn about, ever. The only problem is, it's completely identical to other 62 NS series robots.
I guess this was ok. My second Dr. Calvin story and getting the feeling this might possibly turn into another "Powell and Donovan" trilogy, if not longer. I suppose Dr. Susan Calvin is ok all in all, usually grumpy and frequently obnoxious like Powell and Donovan, but at least there seems to be a bit more depth in her, especially considering the Liar! story. Wildly less likable than Bridget Moynahan in the I, Robot movie though.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1942] [25p] [Sci-Fi] [Not Recommendable] [Get lost]
-----------------------------------------------
★★★★★ Liar!
★★★☆☆ Robot # 0.1 - I, Robot <--
-----------------------------------------------
Encuentra la diferencia.
La Dra. Susan Calvin y Peter Bogert son enviados en una misión especial a un distante asteroide, a la estación Hyper Base donde se está investigando el motor hiperespacial recientemente desarrollado, para resolver el caso de un robot desaparecido, un robot muy especial, y secreto, del tipo que nadie debe enterarse, jamás. El único problema es, que es completamente idéntico a otros 62 robots de la serie NS.
Creo que esto estuvo ok. Mi segunda historia de la Dra. Calvin y con la sensación de que esto podría convertirse en otra trilogía "Powell y Donovan", si no es que más. Supongo que la Dra. Susan Calvin está bien dentro de todo, generalmente gruñona y frecuentemente desagradable como Powell y Donovan, pero al menos ella parece tener un poco más de profundidad, especialmente considerando la historia ¡Mentiroso! Aunque me resulta mucho menos agradable que Bridget Moynahan en la película Yo, Robot.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1942] [25p] [Ciencia Ficción] [No Recomendable] [Piérdete]
-----------------------------------------------
October 28, 2014
Robots created without the Second Law are, without a doubt, something that will happen. In this story, it did happen and the results were interesting. What happens when you tell a robot not encoded with the Second Law to get lost?
May 3, 2025
3 ⭐
It's starting to look like robots are kind of autistic.
It's starting to look like robots are kind of autistic.
December 16, 2018
A robot knows only what the human wants him to know. Nice short story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2016
A good story that provides a little insight on the woman who will become Susan Calvin, the greatest robopsychologist of all times. I'm not sure wether it was one of the first stories with Calvin, or Asimov had a bad time, but her strong, clever character is not shown here as intense and intricate as usual. It's still very recommendable for all sci-fi readers
May 14, 2014
A cute little story with a nice plot. Great starter for those just getting intso sci-fi. I really enjoyed this!
April 18, 2018
Complexity of our choices. We do not always realize that choosing involves elements that do not always follow a temporal linearity and that have elements that are not always so obvious.
July 8, 2019
This one's pretty intense, with a robot not entirely bound by the first law. It had a good mystery, and a satisfying conclusion.
June 1, 2020
This might very well be my favourite of the shorts in the book as of yet.
I actually had to slow down the audiobook to 1x speed, because of not understanding the second experiment at first.
It is quite an interesting situation from a logic standpoint. The experiment devised to detect the robot with the modified first law was the following: There is a human sitting in a chair. A weight is going to be dropped on his/her head. The robot can prevent this by catching the weight (because of the first law). Meanwhile gamma-rays will be applied between the robot and the human, which kill the earlier instantly, but not the latter (for which the third law applies). They were told about this earlier, and told not to move (for which applies the second law).
Because the deviant robot in the previous experiment told the others not to move in a similar situation they didn’t. There would be no point, because they would die before reaching the human so it is unnecessary (My only problem with the story is with this point - in my logic the first law would overwrite this seemingly logical reasoining, because it is their cornerstone).
Now comes the twist: instead of gamma, harmless infrared rays are used. The deviant robot can detect it, becuase it has worked with it previously, but not the others.
He is cocky and has a superiority complex (in the robots versus humanity question) and so he is the only one to jump to the rescue, because it seems the morally right, but harmless thing to do.
In the end it goes a bit bat-shit crazy and tries to kill Dr. Calvin and is killed- ironically by gamma-rays.
I actually had to slow down the audiobook to 1x speed, because of not understanding the second experiment at first.
It is quite an interesting situation from a logic standpoint. The experiment devised to detect the robot with the modified first law was the following: There is a human sitting in a chair. A weight is going to be dropped on his/her head. The robot can prevent this by catching the weight (because of the first law). Meanwhile gamma-rays will be applied between the robot and the human, which kill the earlier instantly, but not the latter (for which the third law applies). They were told about this earlier, and told not to move (for which applies the second law).
Because the deviant robot in the previous experiment told the others not to move in a similar situation they didn’t. There would be no point, because they would die before reaching the human so it is unnecessary (My only problem with the story is with this point - in my logic the first law would overwrite this seemingly logical reasoining, because it is their cornerstone).
Now comes the twist: instead of gamma, harmless infrared rays are used. The deviant robot can detect it, becuase it has worked with it previously, but not the others.
He is cocky and has a superiority complex (in the robots versus humanity question) and so he is the only one to jump to the rescue, because it seems the morally right, but harmless thing to do.
In the end it goes a bit bat-shit crazy and tries to kill Dr. Calvin and is killed- ironically by gamma-rays.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2025
it's an interesting conundrum, but it relies on so many unlikely things being true, it puts a lot of pressure on my suspension of disbelief. For one: why aren't the robots distinguishable from one another? Why don't they have their serial numbers printed on their bodies, or anywhere? They apparently have very specific tasks, and they don't have interchangeable levels of expertise, so it would make all the sense in the world to have that. They use the fact that NS-10 can distinguish infrared and gamma radiation to catch him. If they don't all know this, you would have to know for sure you are working with the one that does. There's another problem here: the First Law is modified in all these robots for the very reason that they should allow researchers to come to harm from radiation, because they often get exposed to it during their experiments. This raises two problems: 1) the final test they do to determine which one is NS-10 relies on the robots doing the opposite, namely saving someone from radiation, and 2) why would NS-10 be the only one to be able to distinguish between gamma rays and infrared, if experiments with radiation were literally the reason for altering the First Law in them? Asimov writes that NS-10 is the only one versed in etheric physics. If that were true, why would they need 63 robots with an altered First Law? if the others don't work with radiation, they wouldn't require that alteration. These points make this a frustrating one for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2021
Collected in I, Robot, The Complete Robot, Robot Dreams and Robot Visions this story can be read here. A technician tells a NS Robot to go away, and the robot complies, halting work on the entire base. Susan Calvin is called in to locate the errant robot, only to find out that it is one of a few that has had the first law modified.
Susan Calvin is logical, ruthless and comes across as extremely cold, but that woman has to be respected for having an intellect superior enough to outsmart robots.
Susan Calvin is logical, ruthless and comes across as extremely cold, but that woman has to be respected for having an intellect superior enough to outsmart robots.
August 31, 2024
You can find this in
The Complete Robot
,
Robot Visions
,
I, Robot
and
Robot Dreams
.
A robot with a modified first law is told in the most strongest terms to "get lost". And, so, that's exactly what it does do, in amongst 62 normal first law robots.
Susan Calvin is called in to identify the robot, and she's very unimpressed when she finds out that US Robots have been making dodgy robots with dodgy first laws.
Great little story.
Next robot story will be Risk .
A robot with a modified first law is told in the most strongest terms to "get lost". And, so, that's exactly what it does do, in amongst 62 normal first law robots.
Susan Calvin is called in to identify the robot, and she's very unimpressed when she finds out that US Robots have been making dodgy robots with dodgy first laws.
Great little story.
Next robot story will be Risk .
July 16, 2018
Superiority complex, is what this story is all about. The introduction of the story with a robot following a command that is a mere insult "get lost", is rather laughable given how intelligent these robots are made to be.
Combined with the ending, where the superior intelligence of the robot was overcome with a single ploy from a human engineer. This shows us that those robots aren't really as intelligence as the books have been portraying them to be.
Combined with the ending, where the superior intelligence of the robot was overcome with a single ploy from a human engineer. This shows us that those robots aren't really as intelligence as the books have been portraying them to be.
March 1, 2024
It's a good thing robots have the 3 laws (and no red flash over-ride) because a psychotic robot that's hiding is really effective. This is the (a) Asimov story which inspired the One of Us response from the room full of robots (as even the robots can tell an outside robot). It took the Amazing Dr. Calvin (robopsychologist) to find the robot told by a human (master) to go loose itself... be careful with robots as they take commands literally when their programming allows! :rofl.
January 16, 2024
The robot gets lost, and since one of the Three Laws of Robotics was eliminated from its construction, the robot is a jerk. I read this in I, Robot, and it was one of the lesser stories in that collection: interesting, but confusing. Some great ideas, but I lost track of the plot. Most of the other stories in I, Robot are better.
December 1, 2019
Y Elvex dejó de ser.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2020
short lil story, pretty good!
January 15, 2022
Audiolibro. Bellissimo, leggerò sicuramente altro.
November 9, 2022
Good logic mystery short. Recommended.
November 28, 2023
I love this story. It's such a great dive into the psychology of the three laws of robotics.
April 14, 2024
Extremely interesting. However, I wasn’t always sure which details applied to which robots in the story. Read in the I, Robot collection.
September 27, 2022
Muy buena historia pero se me hace confusa por sus términos por ratos pero si se entiende, voy por el siguiente.
December 9, 2023
Clever short story narrated by one of the best narrators George Guidell. Why there needs to be a First Law of Robotics, and an egotistical robot. This is the story they used for the I Robot movie. This story can be found in 'Robot Visions'.
July 28, 2020
Oh, how I love this fabulously gorgeous Sci-Fi story... It's a story from great cycles: Foundation Universe and U.S. Robots. Here we will find out what needs to be done in order to find out among 63 robots the one who has partially "disabled" the First Law of Robotics? And robopsychologist Susan Calvin is trying to investigate this by coming up with a unique and versatile test... an absolute delight for the brain of the reader, lover of detective stories and science fiction.
November 25, 2024
5
1st story in Robot Dreams. Susan Calvin is a bit intense. Brutal even.
Sixth story in I, Robot.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littl...
Another favorite featuring Susan Calvin, Robopsychologist. I can see at least some elements used in the movie. Again explores the interplay of the laws and how tweaking them can cause...problems. Always elements of the intricacies of the human mind. Susan use her deep understanding of the laws to find this...lost Nestor.
1st story in Robot Dreams. Susan Calvin is a bit intense. Brutal even.
Sixth story in I, Robot.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littl...
Another favorite featuring Susan Calvin, Robopsychologist. I can see at least some elements used in the movie. Again explores the interplay of the laws and how tweaking them can cause...problems. Always elements of the intricacies of the human mind. Susan use her deep understanding of the laws to find this...lost Nestor.
August 17, 2015
A fun short story playing on Asimov's 3 laws of robotics.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews