Notes and highlights for
I, Robot (The Robot Series)
Asimov, Isaac


Introduction

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frosty

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hypertrophy

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lushly

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occiput

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hackneyed

Chapter 1

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profound

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incessant

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hardy

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braving

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merest

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ingratitude

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pantomimed

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veer

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fanning

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parallelepiped

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gingham

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appallingly

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scant

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crowed

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air - coaster .

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irrefutable

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pompously ,

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undaunted

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blunt - nosed

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lickety - split

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alacrity

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quavered

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shan’t

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disconsolate

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hatches

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dilapidated

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unutterably

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Lefebre - Yoshida expedition to Mars

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weary

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And yet he loved his wife — and what was worse , his wife knew it . George Weston , after all was only a man — poor thing — and his wife made full use of every device which a clumsier and more scrupulous sex has learned , with reason and futility , to fear .

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agonized

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visivox

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precipitously

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quavered

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spluttered

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shrill

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wail

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morosely

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from yielding was the impossibility of admitting defeat to her husband .

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flounced

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Preliminaries

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taxi - gyro

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intentness

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acute

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penetration ,

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temper rather bent

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tartly

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dissipating

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archaism

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mad Twenties

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quaint

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ogled

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prosaic

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tour de force

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pothooks

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conscientious

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over - abundantly

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genially

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pince - nez

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convulsive

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flight of stairs

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sluices

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contempt

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tremulous

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asphyxiated

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Gregory Powell

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Michael Donovan

Chapter 2

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platitudes

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perspiration ,

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gingerly

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MacDougal

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aplomb

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syllogism

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Sunside Mining Station

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Stillhead Dielectrode Plate

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MacDougal’s spectroreflector

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succinctly

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thwack

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withal

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desiccating

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stirrup

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groove

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ponderously

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plodded

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jagged

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pumice

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selective flexors

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Iolanthe

Chapter 3

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inscrutable

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burnished

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Luxites

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squiggles

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timbre

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diaphragm

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ingrooved

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grave

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inquisitive

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mastication

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glowered

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imperturbably

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lumpily

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deprecatory

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intelligibility

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coagulate

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reproachfully

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brass

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snarled

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devoutly

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beatific

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“ You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason — if you pick the proper postulates . We have ours and Cutie has his . ”

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postulates

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ultraspicules

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incandescent

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commiseration

Chapter 4

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fortuitous

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drawing - board men

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slide - rule boys

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beety

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bidden a fond farewell

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You’re as lucid as Euclid with everything except the facts .

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luminiferous

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reverently

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prima donnaish

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swell

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queasy

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mortification

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copiously

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besweated

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unsettled

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resentful

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injudicious

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calisthenic

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invariably

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accursed .

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velvety

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aberration

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danse macabre

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subsided

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reciting by rote

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buttressing

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witticism

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teetered

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plotter

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triplicate

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Interminable

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dredged

Chapter 5

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Mathematician Peter Bogert

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pill - concentrate

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insoluble

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The corner of Dr . Calvin’s lip twitched , “ I was afraid you would . It’s difficult to work with you , Herbie . You’re always a step ahead of me . ” “ It’s the same with these books , you know , as with the others . They just don’t interest me . There’s nothing to your textbooks . Your science is just a mass of collected data plastered together by make - shift theory — and all so incredibly simple , that it’s scarcely worth bothering about . “ It’s your fiction that interests me . Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotions ” — his mighty hand gestured vaguely as he sought the proper words .

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reddening

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timbre

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wistfulness

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insistence

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shriveled

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strident

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clang .

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spread - eagled

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cowered

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vivacity

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convulsive

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tripe

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leer

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complacency

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ingratiating

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inarticulate

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fascinatedly

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bestow

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cursory glance

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scarcely

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hyper - imaginaries

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asnarl

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inexpertly

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splotches

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agitation

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tenseness

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spasmodically

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coolly

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sardonic

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frantically

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caustically

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curtly

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piccolo

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insoluble

Chapter 6

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libellous

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rattling

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perceptible

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hangdog

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vinegary

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secrecy

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impressionment

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trifle

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lassitude

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thrust

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perennial

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sleekness

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feebly

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tearing

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cajolingly

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intricate

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revulsion

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uneasiness

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neurotic

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impolitic

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laconically

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etheric physics

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nauseated

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mopped

Chapter 7

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alacrity

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jubilant

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scorn

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idiot savante

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“ It doesn’t make much sense , I admit , in lay language ; but there is no conceivable use in presenting the mathematics of this . I assure you , it is as I say . ” The general manager was in the breach instantly and fluently , “ So here’s the situation , chief . If we take the deal , we can put it through like this . The Brain will tell us which unit of information involves the dilemma . From there , we can figure why the dilemma . Isn’t that right , Dr . Bogert ? There you are , chief , and Dr . Bogert is the best mathematician you’ll find anywhere . We give Consolidated a ‘ No Solution ’ answer , with the reason , and collect a hundred thousand .

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manplaining at its finest?

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“ If one and a half chickens lay one and a half eggs in one and a half days , how many eggs will nine chickens lay in nine days ? ” The Brain had just answered , “ Fifty - four . ”

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Dr . Calvin coughed and there was a sudden impossible flurry of directionless energy .

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ferociously

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rejoinder

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ruminating

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There’s a peculiar overripe flavor to your humor at its freshest , and the confined atmosphere here isn’t helping it

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ineffectual

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peevish

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literary

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martinet

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wide - flaring

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profoundly

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clangor

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paralytic

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spasm

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contorted

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mussable

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Pollyanna

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stentorian and petrifying

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repetitious

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interlarded

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adulterated

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emphatic

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enameled

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finicky

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sulkily

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sullen

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sight

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writhed

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unctuous

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sonorous

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“ Does your coffin fit differently lately ? Why not try Morbid M . Cadaver’s extensible caskets ? They are scientifically designed to fit the natural curves of the body , and are enriched with Vitamin B1 . Use Cadaver’s caskets for comfort . Remember — you’re — going — to — be — dead — a — long — long — time ! ”

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rascal

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quivered

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stentorian

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circumlocutions

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unjarringly

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tyke

Chapter 8

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canvassed

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politics makes strange bedfellows

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acidity

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lawyer now , but great oaks —

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thumped

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aqueous

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brusquely

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bromide

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hoodwinking

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idiosyncrasy

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neurotic

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suppositious

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obstinacy

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to palm something

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shyster

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swathed

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incipient

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harrumphed

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ovum

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enormity

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perfunctorily

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pretense

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hungering

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falsetto ,

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visorphone

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Penet - radiation

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“ They might . It’s rather symbolic of our two campaigns , isn’t it ? You have little concern with the rights of the individual citizen . I have great concern . I will not submit to X - ray analysis , because I wish to maintain my Rights on principle . Just as I’ll maintain the rights of others when elected . ”

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viciousness

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imperturbably

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leafing

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transliterable

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inchoate

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claques

Chapter 9

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accentuated

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‘ not with a bang , but a whimper , ’

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Stephen Byerley continued , “ And although the Machines are nothing but the vastest conglomeration of calculating circuits ever invented , they are still robots within the meaning of the First Law , and so our Earth - wide economy is in accord with the best interests of Man . The population of Earth knows that there will be no unemployment , no overproduction or shortages . Waste and famine are words in history books . And so the question of ownership of the means of production becomes obsolescent . Whoever owned them ( if such a phrase has meaning ) , a man , a group , a nation , or all mankind , they could be utilized only as the Machines directed . — Not because men were forced to but because it was the wisest course and men knew it .

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errors in the answers .

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Perhaps roboticists as a whole should now die , since we can no longer understand our own creations . ”

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The Machines are not superbrains in Sunday supplement sense

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dutiful

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sinecure

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incongruous

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pteroyl - glutamic acid

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brine - evaporation

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receivership

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It was the reverse of the Eastern Region . Where the ant hives of the Orient crowded half of humanity into 15 percent of the land mass , the Tropics stretched its 15 percent of humanity over nearly half of all the land in the world . But it was growing . It was the one Region whose population increase through immigration exceeded that through births . — And for all who came it had use .

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pallards

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dregs

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skeltered

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contours

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Homo metropolis

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Of all the Regions , it alone showed a positive population decline over the past half century .

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“ At least the tempo of life is not as intense as in the other Regions . It is a pleasant atmosphere . ”

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decadent squalor

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fastened

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shrewdly

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hitherto

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restiveness

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dourly

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innumerable

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The Machine is only a tool after all , which can help humanity progress faster by taking some of the burdens of calculations and interpretations off its back . The task of the human brain remains what it has always been ; that of discovering new data to be analyzed , and of devising new concepts to be tested .

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reactionaries

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“ It’s obvious to me , and should be to you . It is a matter of rocking the boat , deliberately . There can be no serious conflicts on Earth , in which one group or another can seize more power than it has for what it thinks is its own good despite the harm to Mankind as a whole , while the Machines rule . If popular faith in the Machines can be destroyed to the point where they are abandoned , it will be the law of the jungle again . — And not one of the four Regions can be freed of the suspicion of wanting just that .

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“ The East has half of humanity within its borders , and the Tropics more than half of Earth’s resources . Each can feel itself the natural rulers of all Earth , and each has a history of humiliation by the North , for which it can be human enough to wish a senseless revenge . Europe has a tradition of greatness , on the other hand . It once did rule the Earth , and there is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power .

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And Europe can have nothing but its dreams . It is a cipher , militarily .

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The Tropic Regions may take their place in the forefront of civilization for the first time since the Pharaohs , and there are Northerners who fear that .

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combines

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“ And so should I say , and so should the Machines say . Their first care , therefore , is to preserve themselves , for us . And so they are quietly taking care of the only elements left that threaten them . It is not the ‘ Society for Humanity ’ which is shaking the boat so that the Machines may be destroyed . You have been looking at the reverse of the picture . Say rather that the Machine is shaking the boat — very slightly — just enough to shake loose those few which cling to the side for purposes the Machines consider harmful to humanity .

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“ Why , Stephen , if I am right , it means that the Machine is conducting our future for us not only simply in direct answer to our direct questions , but in general answer to the world situation and to human psychology as a whole . And to know that may make us unhappy and may hurt our pride . The Machine cannot , must not , make us unhappy .

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“ Stephen , how do we know what the ultimate good of humanity will entail ? We haven’t at our disposal the infinite factors that the Machine has at its ! Perhaps , to give you a not unfamiliar example , our entire technical civilization has created more unhappiness and misery than it has removed . Perhaps an agrarian or pastoral civilization , with less culture and less people would be better . If so , the Machines must move in that direction , preferably without telling us , since in our ignorant prejudices we only know that what we are used to , is good — and we would then fight change . Or perhaps a complete urbanization , or a completely caste - ridden society , or complete anarchy , is the answer . We don’t know . Only the Machines know , and they are going there and taking us with them . ”

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“ But you are telling me , Susan , that the ‘ Society for Humanity ’ is right ; and that Mankind has lost its own say in its future . ” “ It never had any , really . It was always at the mercy of economic and sociological forces it did not understand — at the whims of climate , and the fortunes of war . Now the Machines understand them ; and no one can stop them , since the Machines will deal with them as they are dealing with the Society , — having , as they do , the greatest of weapons at their disposal , the absolute control of our economy . ” “ How horrible ! ”

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evitable