Susan Calvin stepped up to the podium and surveyed her audience: the stockholders of The United States Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation.
"I want to thank you for your attendance," she said in her brisk, businesslike way, "and to update you on our latest developments."
What a fearsome face she has, thought August Geller, seated in the fourth row of the audience. She reminds me of my seventh-grade English teacher, the one I was always afraid of.
Calvin launched into a detailed explanation of the advanced new circuitry she had introduced into the positronic brain, breaking it down into terms a layman--even a stockholder--could understand.
Brilliant mind, thought Geller. Absolutely brilliant. It's probably just as well. Imagine a countenance like that without a mind to offset it.
"Are there any questions at this point?" asked Calvin, her cold, blue eyes scanning the audience.
"I have one," said a pretty young woman, rising to her feet.
"Yes?"
The woman voiced her question.
"I thought I had covered that point," said Calvin, doing her best to hide her irritation. "However..."
She launched into an even more simplistic explanation.
Isn't it amazing?, thought Geller. Here are two women, one with a mind like a steel trap, the other with an I.Q. that would probably freeze water, and yet I can't take my eyes off the woman who asked that ridiculous question. Poor Doctor Calvin; Nature has such a malicious sense of humor.
Calvin noticed a number of the men staring admiringly at her questioner. It was not the first time that men had found something more fascinating than Calvin to capture their attention, nor the hundredth, nor the thousandth.
What a shame, she thought, that they aren't more like robots, that they let their hormones overwhelm their logic. Here I am, explaining how I plan to spend twelve billion dollars of their money, and they're more interested in a pretty face.
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