Robots are created to design their own future, which they do by both creating non-humanoid robots and beginning to question the nature of “mankind.”

I actually do not care for this story very much, although I'm not sure why. I think it may because of the vaguely anti-robot feeling of the ending. I do have enough rationality, however, to realize that this is a very important robot story in terms of Asimov’s developing thinking about robots. The idea of “human being” being redefined for robots to be made harmful is not new to Asimov—it cropped up in The Naked Sun and would crop up again in Foundation and Earth—but it is never more carefully nor thoroughly explored than it is here.

Found In

	The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
	The Complete Robot
	The Asimov Chronicles
	Complete Stories, The, Vol. 2