R.U.R. | Page 7

Why do you make them?
Busman: Hahaha, that's a good one! Why do we make robots!
Fabry: So that they can work for us, Miss Glory. One robot can take the place of two and a half workers. The human body is very imperfect; one day it had to be replaced with a machine that would work better.
Busman: People cost too much.
Fabry: They were very unproductive. They weren't good enough for modern technology. And besides,... besides... this is wonderful progress that... I beg your pardon.
Helena: What?
Fabry: Please forgive me, but to give birth to a machine is wonderful progress. It's more convenient and it's quicker, and everything that's quicker means progress. Nature had no notion of the modern rate of work. From a technical point of view, the whole of childhood is quite pointless. Simply a waste of time. And thirdly...
Helena: Oh, stop it!
Fabry: As you like. Can I ask you, what actually is it that your League... League of Humanity stands for?
Helena: It's meant to... actually it's meant to protect the robots and make sure... make sure they're treated properly.
Fabry: That's not at all a bad objective. A machine should always be treated properly. In fact I agree with you completely. I never like it when things are damaged. Miss Glory, would you mind enrolling all of us as new paying members of your organisation.
Helena: No, you don't understand. We want, what we actually want is to set the robots free!
Hallemeier: To do what?
Helena: They should be treated... treated the same as people.
Hallemeier: Aha. So you mean they should have the vote! Do you think they should be paid a wage as well?
Helena: Well of course they should!
Hallemeier: We'll have to see about that. And what do you think they'd do with their wages?
Helena: They'd buy... buy the things they need... things to bring them pleasure.
Hallemeier: This all sounds very nice; only robots don't feel pleasure. And what are these things they're supposed to buy? They can be fed on pineapples, straw, anything you like; it's all the same to them, they haven't got a sense of taste. There's nothing they're interested in, Miss Glory. It's not as if anyone's ever seen a robot laugh.
Helena: Why... why... why don't you make them happier?
Hallemeier: We couldn't do that, they're only robots after all. They've got no will of their own. No passions. No hopes. No soul.
Helena: And no love and no courage?
Hallemeier: Well of course they don't feel love. Robots don't love anything, not even themselves.? And courage? I'm not so sure about that; a couple of times, not very often, mind, they have shown some resistance...
Helena: What?
Hallemeier: Well, nothing in particular, just that sometimes they seem to, sort of, go silent. It's almost like some kind of epileptic fit. 'Robot cramp', we call it. Or sometimes one of them might suddenly smash whatever's in its hand, or stand still, or grind their teeth-- and then they just have to go on the scrap heap. It's clearly just some technical disorder.
Domin: Some kind of fault in the production.
Helena: No, no, that's their soul!
Fabry: Do you think that grinding teeth is the beginnings of a soul?
Domin: We can solve that problem, Miss Glory. Doctor Gall is carrying out some experiments right now.?
Dr. Gall: No, not quite yet, Domin, at present I'm working on nerves for feeling pain.?
Helena: Nerves for feeling pain?
Dr. Gall: That's right. Robots have virtually no sense of physical pain, as young Rossum simplified the nervous system a bit too much. That turns out to have been a mistake and so we're working on pain now.?
Helena: Why... why... if you don't give them a soul why do you want to give them pain?
Dr. Gall: For good industrial reasons, Miss Glory. The robots sometimes cause themselves damage because it causes them no pain; they do things such as pushing their hand into a machine, cutting off a finger or even smash their heads in. It just doesn't matter to them. But if they have pain it'll be an automatic protection against injuries.?
Helena: Will they be any the happier when they can feel pain?
Dr. Gall: Quite the opposite, but it will be a technical improvement.
Helena: Why don't you create a soul for them?
Dr. Gall: That's not within our power.
Fabry: That wouldn't be in our interest.
Busman: That would raise production costs. Just think how cheaply we make them; a hundred and twenty dollars each, complete with clothing, and fifteen years ago they cost ten thousand! Five years ago we still had to buy the clothes for them, but now we have our own weaving mills and even sell material at a fifth of the price of other mills. Tell me, Miss Glory, what is it you pay for a metre of cloth?
Helena: I don't know... I really don't know... I've forgotten.
Busman: Dear dear me,