Plot Summary:
Elijah Baley, the detective from
The Caves of Steel, is given a new
assignment to investigate the murder of a Spacer (long-lived humans
that colonize space), Demarre, on a distant world called Solaria in
The Naked Sun (1957). This world is the exact opposite of
Earth in which all humans have a fear of being alone and in wide open
places. People on Solaria, who are used to wide open spaces, cannot
tolerate the physical presence of another human being, and
communicate remotely by "trimension," wear covering over their bodies
when contact is unavoidable, and even procreate by laboratory
fertilization. Daneel Olivaw, Baley's robot partner from
The Caves of Steel, also assists
him in this investigation. Daneel and Baley eventually solve the
murder and Baley overcomes his agoraphobia in the process.
1. What is the role/function of the robot? Why was
it created?
Daneel Olivaw, as in The Caves
of Steel, is the humanoid robot designed to investigate
mysteries and aid Elijah Baley. In The Naked Sun he also has
the underlying task of investigating the threat of Solarian culture
to the rest of the Spacers. The Solarian robots, on the other hand,
are the sole means for the survival of their human masters. They not
only serve their masters and labor for their survival, they also help
rear the Solarian children. After one month of gestation a Solarian
fetus is taken to a laboratory and raised by human-supervised robots.
The Solarian fear of human presence makes contact with their own
children impossible, and thus they rely on their robots for this
task. The robotic nannies train their human charges to abhor the
presence of other humans and thus turn them into proper Solarians. A
roboticist called Leebig, who eventually turns out to be the
murderer, plans on creating spaceships with positronic brains that
would be instructed to destroy any other ship they
encounter--Leebig's instrument for Galactic domination. He would
avoid the Three Laws of Robotics in this
case by programming his ships with the assumption that all other
ships also contained only robots.
2. How human is it? How human is it meant to
be?
Daneel Olivaw, again, is an exact replica of a human. The
Solarians' robots are also humanoid since they carry out many human
tasks. Except for Daneel, androids and humans are not confused in
this novel.
3. How do humans react to the robot? What is
their attitude?
The Solarians are very trusting and completely reliant of
their robots, which explains why they are so shocked by Leebig's plan
to conquer and kill humans with his positronic spaceships. Their
trust, and the Three Laws of Robotics,
puts into question a robot's role in the murder of Demarre.
4. What are the consequences of the robot in the
novel?
The robot servant of Demarre unwittingly becomes the
instrument for his murder. Leebig designs a robot with detachable
arms that is programmed to remove and offer its arm to Demarre's wife
the next time she gets in an argument with him. When she holds the
robotic arm in a subsequent argument, the arm, without the robot's
command and thus avoiding the Laws of
Robotics, kills Demarre. The only way for a robot to be a
murderer is for a human to somehow avoid the Laws, as in
The Caves of Steel. There are more
curious twists to the Three Laws in this novel. The murdered
roboticist before his death was trying to train the nanny robots to
spank unruly children, but the robots would've been breaking the
First Law by this act. In addition, Baley tries to open a window
blind on Solaris to aid the conquering of his agoraphobia, but Daneel
stops him because he knows that Baley will come to harm, regardless
of the long-term benefit of Baley's confrontation with his fear.
5. Conclusion:
The robots in The Naked Sun, as in other Asimov
stories, are the innocent pawns of their human masters. They only
want to help humanity, but humans constantly use them for evil
purposes: all they know is their own programming. While the robots in
this novel are undoubtedly good, they are helping humans live a
lifestyle that is seemingly perverse. Asimov's robots, again, are
only the tools of humans and their good or evil depends on the human
"pressing the button."
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