Evidence

by Isaac Asimov

Stephen Byerley runs for mayor of a major American city. His opponent Francis Quinn claims that Stephen Byerley is a humanoid robot...

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Robots, Fiction

28 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 1946

About the author

Works 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...

Reviews

[Chad Schimke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evidence Isaac Asimov 1946
A political opponent levels an accusation that his rival is a robot, remotely guided by the true candidate -- who was in reality permanently disfigured by an accident.
https://www.chadschimke.com/2018/08/s...

[Federico DN · Rating 2 out of 5]

Electronic voting.

Election day is coming, and Francis Quinn and Stephen Byerley are the top contenders for local Mayor. Both supremely efficient, extremely popular, and with impeccable careers. Yet, there's slight problem, when some disconcerting accusations are raised. One of them may actually be a robot!

I suppose this was ok, slightly more interesting than the standard sameo sameo story. A somewhat different style of approach but with the same the 3 Laws dilemma, and with Dr. Susan Calvin and Director Lanning as protagonists; not that it would've made any difference to me if it had been Powell and Donovan again. The story is the MC here, and it does its job well. Sufficiently entertaining and some food for thought, but that's about it. Far from great.



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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1942] [23p] [Sci-Fi] [2.5] [Conditional Recommendable]
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★★★★★ Liar!
★★★☆☆ Robot # 0.1 - I, Robot <--

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Voto electrónico.

Se acerca el día de elecciones, y Francis Quinn y Stephen Byerley son los principales candidatos locales a Alcalde. Ambos sumamente eficientes, extremadamente populares, y con carreras impecables. Sin embargo, aparece un pequeño problema cuando surgen algunas acusaciones desconcertantes. Uno de ellos ¡puede ser en realidad un robot!

Supongo que esto estuvo bien, un poco más entretenida que la misma historia estándar siempre igual. Un estilo de planteamiento algo diferente pero con el mismo dilema de las 3 Leyes, y con la Dra. Susan Calvin y el Director Lanning como protagonistas; aunque no es que hubiera hecho ninguna diferencia para mí si hubieran sido Powell y Donovan otra vez. La historia es el personaje principal aquí, y hace su trabajo bien. Suficientemente interesante y con alguna cosa que deja para pensar, pero nada más que eso. Lejos de espectacular.



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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1942] [23p] [Ciencia Ficción] [2.5] [Recomendable Condicional]
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[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is mayoral candidate Stephen Byerley a robot or not?

As you read this story, be on the lookout for instances of a character telling Byerley to do something. It almost never happens, which is weird. Even the guy with the search warrant doesn't give orders; he simply makes declarative statements about the warrant he has. And yet, naively, you'd think the second law would be simplest to test. Just order Byerley to do something silly and inconsequential, see if he can choose not to obey. Seems like Asimov is avoiding a simple, obvious solution to make his story seem cleverer than it really is.

Only, if they did that, and Byerley disobeyed, I expect there'd be an explanation for it on the assumption that Byerley is a robot, like there is for all the other supposed evidence that he's human. Think of the harm Byerley could prevent as mayor! Won't happen if he doesn't get elected, and he won't get elected if he's outed as a robot, so he must disobey to prevent himself from being outed. Same reasoning even applies to the punch, supposing the guy who took it was human. A punch is such a minor harm, after all.

The point, as it often is, is that the apparently rigid laws of robotics are subject to interpretation and lawyering by robots with bad epistemics. They kinda have to be - if they weren't, robots would all refuse to spend their time doing anything but working to eradicate malaria, or poverty, or whatever's most cost-effective in Asimov's future. And even that assumes that the laws are sufficiently open to interpretation that robots don't become paralyzed on realizing that they must choose which harms to prevent.

[Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collected in I, Robot, The Complete Robot and Robot Visions this story can be read a here. US Robotics, Susan Calvin and Dr. Lanning become embroiled in a politician's plot to accuse his opponent of being a Robot. When all is said and done, Susan tells them a robot's behavior would be that of a very good person, so the only way to tell if the opponent human is for him to break one of the three laws of robotics.

Susan may be pro-robot, but she's not wrong. There are already many of us who think our pets are better than most human beings and we're right, because humanity has an equal capacity for good and evil, when most animals are neutral or good. Robots by her definition are the same, so why not let them rule the world? After reading this I'm inclined to agree with her, especially considering the current (2021) state of world politics.

[Husam Starxin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, very few of Asimov's books touch upon the psychological aspect of being a robot vs being a human. This particular one tackles the issue of separating a robot from a human without an anatomical test.
In a real world scenario this issue would simply be resolved by testing the anatomy of the individual, and in the case of refusing the test, the candidate is simply disqualified. However the whole story is built on the premise that a robot acting as a human may invoke human rights to protect itself from being discovered, I like that plot very much.
I particularly like the mystery that was never resolved on whether the candidate was in fact a human or not. Remember just because he hit that heckler, doesn't mean that he is a human, simply because the heckler could've been a robot, thereby preserving the first law.

[5t4n5 Dot Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can find this in The Complete Robot , Robot Visions and I, Robot .

A mayoral candidate is accused by his opponent of being a robot.

Another really good story with lots of the Three Laws of Robotics conundrums thrown in.

And next we move onto The Evitable Conflict .

[Jack Grey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm working my way through his 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕 stories to have a foundation by which to read 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. I found this one in the anthology 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔. I finally forced my way through it after many unsuccessful attempts. It is so poorly conceived and written that I put the book down for weeks. He parades his "robot laws" around in so many stories, and every one I read is worse than the last. Asimov is very inconsistent and at his worst, irretrievably broken as a writer. At this point, the only reason I read him at all is to say that I have. It is a chore.

[Kareen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Evidence" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990).

Many people choose to see Asimov's treatment of technophobia as an allegory to the antisemitism with which he was bitterly familiar; he wrote Evidence during Army service shortly after World War II.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Byerley has been accused by his political opponent of being a robot, and that shouldn’t matter. Would you vote a robot into a political office? I would if that robot was intelligent, and especially if that robot followed the Three Laws of Robotics. A very interesting story and one of the best in I, Robot when I read it, with a main idea that fascinated me and some ambiguity that made it better.

[David Meditationseed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most mysterious story from the book "I Robot" in my opinion. This tale looks like those court papers or interviews: uses of half truths, half lies and variations of language to get what you want. And could we trust our senses fully to say what reality is?

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have I, Robot in my shelf already, but I needed to add Evidence separately so I could slot it as a favorite. I have no idea how to put into words what I felt while reading this! I gasped out loud, I had the silliest, giddiest smile on my face, and I ended the story both wanting so much more and being so content with where it was. Just everything I love in a short story.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I like this one, although it was a bit slow. Nice foreshadowing for Asimov's robot novels.

[Howardstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit boring, nothing too profound

[Krishna Venkitachalam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a gorgeous short story, the only one that Asimov wrote in the period he was in the army. Should be cinematized.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

5

[Joop Kriebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐

In my opinion the best story of this collection.

[Poncho González · Rating 5 out of 5]

"pruebas circunstanciales" que maravilla de Asimov de atraparte en una historia tan rápido

[Alysha DeShaé · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story! I still don't know if Byerley is a robot or not, but that only makes the story more incredible.