Rossum´s Universal Robots (9 page)

Alquist
That was never the dream of either of the Rossums; old Rossum was thinking of Godless rubbish and young Rossum thought of nothing but making millions. And it’s not the dream of RUR shareholders either; their only dream was their dividend. And it’s because of their concern for their profits that mankind is about to perish.

Domin
(
agitated
) The Devil take their dividends! Do you think I’d have spent an hour of my time for their sakes? (
thumping table
) I did it for myself, d’you hear? For my own satisfaction! I wanted mankind to become his own master! I wanted him not to have to live just for the next crust of bread! I wanted not a single soul to have to go stupid standing at somebody else’s machines! I wanted to leave nothing-nothing!-left of this damned mess that society’s in! I hate seeing humiliation and pain all around us, I hate poverty! I wanted to start a new generation! I wanted to... I thought that...

Alquist
What?

Domin
(
quieter
) I wanted mankind to become an aristocracy of the world. Free, unconstrained, sovereign. Maybe even something higher than human.

Alquist
Superhumans, you mean.

Domin
Yes. If only we’d had another hundred years. Another hundred years for the new mankind.

Busman
(
sotto voce
) Three hundred and seventy million, carry over. Like that.

(
pause
)

Hallemeier
(
at door, left
) Music is a wonderful thing, you know. You should have been listening. There’s something ennobling about it, soothing...

Fabry
What exactly?

Hallemeier
To Hell with this end of mankind! I think I’m turning into a hedonist, lads. We should have got into it much earlier. (
goes to window and looks out
)

Fabry
Into what?

Hallemeier
Enjoying ourselves. Beauty. Hell, there are so many beautiful things around us! The world was beautiful, and we... we here... Tell me, lads, what did we ever enjoy?

Busman
(
sotto voce
) Four hundred and fifty two million-excellent.

Hallemeier
(
at window
) Life was great. My friends, life was... Ah, Fabry, put a little bit of current into that fence of yours.

Fabry
Why!

Hallemeier
They’re touching it.

Dr. Gall
(
at window
) Switch it on!

Hallemeier
Christ, that showed them! Two, three, four of them killed!

Dr. Gall
They’re moving back.

Hallemeier
Five killed.

Dr. Gall
(
coming back from window
) First strike.

Fabry
Have you got the smell of death?

Hallemeier
(
contented
) We’ve got them cornered, right in a corner. Haha, you should never give in! (
sitting
)

Domin
(
rubs his brow
) Perhaps we’re just ghosts, dead for a hundred years. Perhaps we were killed a long long time ago, and we’ve come back just to recant something we once said... before we died. It’s as if I’d been through this before! As if it had all been done to me already. A shot here, in the neck. What about you, Fabry?

Fabry
What about me?

Domin
Shot.

Hallemeier
Hell, what about me?

Domin
Stabbed.

Dr. Gall
Nothing for me, then?

Domin
Torn to pieces.

(
pause
)

Hallemeier
What a lot of nonsense! Haha, they could never stab me! I wouldn’t let them!

(
pause
)

Hallemeier
So what are you all so quiet for, all gone mad? Say something, damn it!

Alquist
And whose fault is it? Who’s to blame for all this?

Hallemeier
You’re talking nonsense. Nobody’s to blame. It’s just that the robots, well, the robots changed somehow. How can you blame anyone for the robots?

Alquist
Everything wiped out! The whole of mankind! The whole world! (
standing
) Think of it, just think of it, streams of blood on every doorstep! Streams of blood flowing from every house! Oh God, oh God, who’s to blame for it all?

Busman
(
sotto voce
) Five hundred and twenty million! Dear dear me, that’s half a billion!

Fabry
I think... I think you could be exaggerating. After all, it’s not that easy to wipe out the whole of mankind.

Alquist
It’s science I blame! Technology I blame! Domin! Myself! All of us! It’s us, we’re the ones to blame! We thought we were doing something great, giving some benefit, making progress. I don’t know what magnificent ideas it was for that we’ve destroyed mankind! And now all our greatness is bursting like a bubble! Not even Genghis Khan built up a heap of human bones like we’ve done.

Hallemeier
You’re talking a lot of nonsense! People won’t give up that easily, haha, course they won’t!

Alquist
It’s our fault, our fault!

Dr. Gall
(
wiping sweat from brow
) If I can say something, I think I’m the one to blame. For everything that’s happened.

Fabry
You, Gall?

Dr. Gall
Yes, let me speak. It was me who made the changes to the robots. Busman, you can blame me as well.

Busman
(
standing
) Dear me, what? What happened to you?

Dr. Gall
I changed the robots’ character. I altered the way they were made. Nothing much to their bodies, you know, but mainly... mainly... it was their level of irritability.

Hallemeier
(
jumping up
) Hell and damnation why did you do that?

Busman
Why did you do it?

Fabry
Why didn’t you tell anyone!?

Dr. Gall
I did it in secret... on my own initiative. I was making them into people. I sent them off course. Now they’re better than we are in some ways. They’re stronger than we are.

Fabry
And what’s that got to do with the robots’ revolt?

Dr. Gall
Oh, it’s got a lot to do with it. Everything, I should think. They stopped being machines-do you hear me?-they became aware of their strength and now they hate us. They hate the whole of mankind. I’m the one to blame.

Domin
Let the dead bury the dead.

Fabry
Doctor Gall, you changed the way the robots were made?

Dr. Gall
Yes.

Fabry
Were you aware of what might be the results of your... of your experiment?

Dr. Gall
I was. I did reckon on some possibility of that sort.

Fabry
Why did you do it?

Dr. Gall
I did it for myself. It was my personal experiment.

(
Helena at doorway, left. All stand
)

Helena
He’s lying! That’s horrible! Oh Gall, how can you lie like that?

Fabry
Sorry, Helena...

Domin
(
goes to her
) Helena, you? Let me see you! You’re alive? (
embraces her
) If you only knew what I’ve been thinking! Oh, it’s terrible, being dead.

Helena
Harry let go of me! It isn’t Gall’s fault, it isn’t, it isn’t, he’s not to blame!

Domin
But I’m afraid Gall did have his responsibilities.

Helena
No, Harry, he did it because I wanted it. Tell them Gall, tell them how I begged you for years to....

Dr. Gall
It was all my own responsibility.

Helena
Don’t believe him! Harry, I wanted him to give the robots a soul!

Domin
Helena, it’s not a matter of having a soul.

Helena
No, just let me speak. That’s what he said as well, he said he could only make physiological changes... alter the physiological...

Hallemeier
The physiological correlates, you mean?

Helena
Yes, something like that. Harry, I felt so sorry for them!

Domin
That was very... that was very stupid of you, Helena.

Helena
(
sitting
) Yes... it was very.. stupid of me. But even Nana says that...

Domin
Just leave Nana out of it!

Helena
No Harry, don’t under-estimate her. Nana is the voice of the people. People like Nana have been speaking for a thousand years, and you’re just speaking for today. You don’t understand that...

Domin
Let’s keep to the point.

Helena
I was afraid of the robots.

Domin
Why?

Helena
I thought they might start to hate us, or something.

Alquist
That’s what’s happened.

Helena
And so I thought... if they were like us, if they could understand us, that then they couldn’t possibly hate us so much... if only they were like people... just a little bit....

Domin
Oh Helena! Nobody could hate man as much as man! Give a man a stone and he’ll throw it at you Just carry on!

Helena
Oh, don’t talk like that, Harry, it was so horrible that we could never understand each other! Such a cruel strangeness between us and them. And that’s why... you see...

Domin
Go on.

Helena
... that’s why I asked Gall to change the robots. It wasn’t him who wanted to do it, I promise you.

Domin
But he did do it.

Helena
Because I wanted him to.

Dr. Gall
I did it for my own sake, as an experiment.

Helena
Oh, Gall, that isn’t true. Before I asked you I knew you couldn’t refuse me.

Domin
Why not?

Helena
You know why not, Harry.

Domin
Yes, because he loves you-like we all love you.

(
pause
)

Hallemeier
(
goes to window
) There are more of them again, now. It’s as if they were springing up out of the earth.

Busman
Helena, what will you give me if I act as your advocate.

Helena
Me?

Busman
You, or Gall. As you like.

Helena
What difference does it make?

Busman
Just morally. We’re looking for someone to blame. That’s the usual way to find consolation when something bad happens.

Domin
Doctor Gall; how do you square your... your extra-mural activities with your contract?

Busman
Excuse me, Domin. Gall; when did you actually start playing around in this way?

Dr. Gall
Three years ago.

Busman
Aha. And how many robots did you change, in total?

Dr. Gall
I only performed a number of experiments, no more than a few hundred.

Busman
Thank you very much, Gall. Now that’s enough, children. This means that out of a million old, properly functioning robots just one will have been one of Gall’s reformed models. Do you see what I mean?

Domin
So that means...

Busman
... that it has practically no significance at all.

Fabry
Busman is right.

Busman
I think I am. And now, lads, do you know what really caused all this to happen?

Fabry
What?

Busman
The number of them. We made too many robots. Dear me, it’s only what we should have been expecting; as soon as the robots became stronger than people this was bound to happen, it had to happen, you see? Haha, and we did all that we could to make it happen as soon as possible; you Domin, you Fabry, and little me, Busman.

Domin
So you think it’s the fault of all of us.

Busman
You’re quite right. How could you ever have thought the managing director was in charge of production? Production is governed by supply and demand. Everywhere in the world they wanted to have their robots, and all we did was respond to the flood of orders. And all the time we were talking nonsense about technology, sociology, progress, and all sorts of interesting matters. How could talk of this sort chit-chat decide how things were going to turn out? Meanwhile, things gathered their own momentum, getting faster and faster and faster. Every miserable, greedy, dirty new order added its own pebble to the avalanche. That’s what happened, children.

Helena
Busman, that’s horrible!

Busman
It is, Helena. I had my own dreams, too. A Busman sort of dream about anew economic order; a beautiful fantasy, Helena, a shame to speak of it. But just now, while I was doing the accounts, it occurred to me that history is not about great dreams; it’s about the day to day needs of all the little people, the honest ones, the slightly dishonest ones, the selfish ones; about everyone. And all these thoughts and loves and plans and heroic deeds, all these noble things are worth nothing more than something to clutter up the museum of the universe, under the heading ‘Mankind’. And that’s all. And now, will somebody tell me what we’re going to do now?

Helena
And is it for the sake of that that we’re all going to die?

Busman
Don’t put it so harshly, Helena. We’re not all going to die. At least, I am not. I want to stay alive so that...

Domin
And what are you going to do about it?

Busman
But Domin, dear boy, I want to get out of here.

Domin
(
standing over him
) How?

Busman
For good. When I do things I always do them for good. Give me your full authority, and I will go and negotiate with the robots.

Domin
For good?

Busman
Of course. Let’s suppose I go to them, and I say, “Dear robots, happy race, you have everything. You have intelligence, you have power, you have weapons; but we have a rather interesting little piece of paper, a rather old, yellowing, dirty piece...”