“I did,” Andrew replied.
Magdescu looked up at him sharply, then said, “It would amount to a major overhaul of your body, and an experimental one, since such a thing has never been attempted before. I advise against it. Remain as you are.”
Andrew’s face had limited means of expression, but impatience showed plainly in his voice. “Dr. Magdescu, you miss the entire point: You have no choice but to accede to my request. If such devices can be built into my body, they can be built into human bodies as well. The tendency to lengthen human life by prosthetic devices has already been remarked on. There are no devices better than the ones I have designed or am de
signing. t happens, I control the patents by way of the firm of Feingold and Martin. We are quite capable of going into business for ourselves and of developing the kind of prosthetic devices that may end by producing human beings with many of the properties of robots. Your own business will then suffer. “If, however, you operate on me now and agree to do so under similar circumstances in the future, you will receive permission to make use of the patents and control the technology of both robots and of the prosthetization of human beings. The initial leasing will not be granted, of course, until after the first operation is completed successfully, and after enough time has passed to demonstrate that it is indeed successful.” Andrew felt scarcely any First Law inhibition to the stern conditions he was setting a human being. He was learning to reason that what seemed like cruelty might, in the long run, be kindness. Magdescu was stunned. “I’m not the one to decide something like this. That’s a corporate decision that would take time.” “I can wait a reasonable time,” said Andrew, “but only a reasonable time.” And he thought with satisfaction that Paul himself could not have done it better.
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It took only a reasonable time, and the operation was a success. “I was very much against the operation, Andrew,” Magdescu said, “but not for the reasons you might think. I was not in the least against the experiment, if it had been on someone else. I hated risking your positronic brain. Now that you have the positronic pathways interacting with simulated nerve pathways, it might have been difficult to rescue the brain intact if the body had gone bad” “I had every faith in the skill of the staff at U.S. Robots,” said Andrew. “And I can eat now.” “Well, you can sip olive oil. It will mean occasional cleanings of the combustion chamber, as we have explained to you. Rather an uncomfortable touch, I should think.” “Perhaps, if I did not expect to go further. Self cleaning is not impossible. In fact, I am working on a
device that will deal with solid food that may be expected to contain incombustible fractions-indigestible matter, so to speak, that will have to be discarded.” “You would then have to develop an anus.” “Or the equivalent.” “What else, Andrew. . . ?” “Everything else.” “Genitalia, too?” “Insofar as they will fit my plans. My body is a canvas on which I intend to draw . . .” Magdescu waited for the sentence to he completed, and when it seemed that it would not be, he completed it himself. “A man?” “We shall see,” Andrew said. “That’s a puny ambition, Andrew. You’re better than a man. You’ve gone downhill from the moment, you opted to become organic.” “My brain has not suffered.” “No, it hasn’t. I’ll grant you that. But, Andrew, the whole new breakthrough in prosthetic devices made possible by your patents is being marketed under your name. You’re recognized as the inventor and you’re being honored for it-as you should be. Why play further games with your body?” Andrew did not answer. The honors came. He accepted membership in several learned societies, including one that was devoted to the new science he had established-the one he had called robobiology but which had come to be termed prosthetology. On the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his construction, a testimonial dinner was given in his honor at U.S. Robots. If Andrew saw an irony in this, he kept it to himself. Alvin Magdescu came out of retirement to chair the dinner. He was himself ninety-four years old and was alive because he, too, had prosthetized devices that, among other things, fulfilled the function of liver and, kidneys. The dinner reached its climax when Magdescu, after a short and emotional talk, raised his glass to . toast The Sesquicentennial Robot. Andrew had had the sinews of his face redesigned to the point where he could show a human range of emotions, but he sat through all the ceremonies solemnly passive. He did not like to be a Sesquicentennial Robot.