User blog:JWSchmidt/Origins

When Isaac Asimov crafted his time travel novel, The End of Eternity, he depicted his time traveling characters as making the decision to give up on time travel. Why? "we are not alone in the Galaxy. There are other stars with other planets, you know. There are even other intelligences. None, in this Galaxy at least, are as ancient as mankind, but in the 125,000 Centuries man remained on Earth, younger minds caught up and passed us, developed the interstellar drive, and colonized the Galaxy". While humans played around with time travel and perfecting human existence on Earth, other intelligent species took over the galaxy. Eventually humans, restricted to one small planet, just died out.

If we adopt Asimov's suggestion that robots used Eternity in an attempt to follow the Zeroth Law of Robotics and protect humanity, then we can wonder about the origins of those robots and the Laws. In making a sequel to The End of Eternity (The Start of Eternity) there is an opportunity to fill in many of the details about robots that Asimov left open. And what more can we say about those other "other intelligences" in our galaxy? Why do the planets where such species are evolving never mentioned in Asimov's larger fictional universe where the entire galaxy is colonized by humans? Why are other worlds with their own complex biospheres are never mentioned? The Start of Eternity is full of "other intelligences" and provides an account for why it is the case that in the Foundation Reality those other life-bearing planets are not mentioned. The Huaoshy are depicted as the dominant non-human species and details are provided about involvement of those aliens in the development of the human species.

What details can be provided concerning the origin of positronics and the Laws of Robotics? My assumption is that positronic robots were a human invention. Positronics was developed "under the noses" of the Huaoshy. I assume that positronic robots are much more difficult to produce than electronic robots, and it was a fluke that humans bothered with positronics. But once positronic robots were created, the possibility of telepathic robots was discovered and that provided a technological advance that the Huaoshy could not anticipate or control. The story of the origin of the Laws of Robots must involve a small group of humans at Moon Base who built the first robot with a positronic brain. Should details be provided in The Start of Eternity or only be hinted at?