Liar!
|
|
Liar! (1941) is science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov.
Somehow, a robot is created that has the ability to read minds. While the heads of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men are trying to analyse what happened, the robot tells them what the other people are thinking. The First Law still applies to this robot, and it is lying to them about the thoughts it has read in order not to hurt their feelings, especially in terms of the problem it was initially designed to solve. However, by lying it is hurting them anyway, and when it is confronted with this fact the robot collapses.
The application of the Laws of Robotics is again the subject here, like in many others of Asimov's stories, but in terms of telepathy. The lexical ambiguity that is explored here is the definition of injury, the robot having to take into account psychological injury as well as physical.
Another telepathic robot called R. Giskard Reventlov was later introduced by Asimov in The Robots of Dawn.
In 1969 this short story was adapted into an episode of the British television series Out of the Unknown.