Busman, commercial director, and Mr. Alquist, our builder, head of construction at Rossum's Universal Robots. 

Helena I’m sorry gentlemen.  I ... I ... oh, that’s terrible, what have I done?

Alquist Oh, it doesn’t matter, Miss Glory, please sit down.

Helena (sitting ) What a stupid girl I am.  Now, now you’ll send me back on the next ship.

Dr. Gall Not for the world.  Why would we want to send you back?

Helena Because now you know ... you know ... you know I want to destroy your business.

Domin But there’ve already been hundreds of saviours and prophets here.  More of them arrive with every ship; missionaries, anarchists, the Salvation Army, everything you can think of.  It’s astonishing just how many churches and madmen there are in the world.

Helena And you let them talk to the robots?

Domin Why not?  We’ve let them all do it so far.  The robots remember everything, but that’s all they do.  They don’t even laugh at what people tell them.  It’s really quite incredible.  If you feel like it, I can take you down to the storeroom and you can talk to the robots there. 

Busman Three hundred and forty-seven thousand. 

Domin Alright then.  You can lecture them on whatever you like.  Read them the Bible, logarithmic tables, anything.  You can even preach to them about human rights.

Helena But I thought that ... if they were just shown a little love ...

Fabry That’s impossible, Miss Glory.  There’s nothing more different from people than a robot.

Helena Why do you make them?

Busman Hahaha, that’s a good one!  Why do we make robots!

Fabry So that they can work for us, Miss Glory.  One robot can take the place of two and a half workers.  The human body is very imperfect; one day it had to be replaced with a machine that would work better.

Busman People cost too much.

Fabry They were very unproductive.  They weren’t good enough for modern technology.  And besides, ... besides ... this is wonderful progress  that ... I beg your pardon.

Helena What?

Fabry Please forgive me, but to give birth to a machine is wonderful progress.  It’s more convenient and it’s quicker, and everything that’s quicker means progress.  Nature had no notion of the modern rate of work.  From a technical point of view, the whole of childhood is quite pointless.  Simply a waste of time.  And thirdly ...

Helena Oh, stop it!

Fabry As you like.  Can I ask you, what actually is it that your League ... League of Humanity stands for?

Helena It’s meant to .. . actually it’s meant to protect the robots and make sure ... make sure they’re treated properly.

Fabry That’s not at all a bad objective.  A machine should always be treated properly.  In fact I agree with you completely.  I never like it when things are damaged.  Miss Glory, would you mind enrolling all of us as new paying members of your organisation.

Helena No, you don’t understand.  We want, what we actually want is to set the robots free!

Hallemeier To do what?

Helena They should be treated ... treated the same as people.

Hallemeier Aha.  So you mean they should have the vote!  Do you think they should be paid a wage as well?

Helena Well of course they should!

Hallemeier We’ll have to see about that.  And what do you think they’d do with their wages?

Helena They’d buy ... buy the things they need ... things to bring them pleasure.

Hallemeier This all sounds very nice; only robots don’t feel pleasure.  And what are these things they’re supposed to buy?  They can be fed on pineapples, straw, anything you like; it’s all the same to them, they haven’t got a sense of taste.  There’s nothing they’re interested in, Miss Glory.  It’s not as if anyone’s ever seen a robot laugh.

Helena Why ... why ... why don’t you make them happier?

Hallemeier We couldn’t do that, they’re only robots after all.  They’ve got no will of their own.  No passions.  No hopes.  No soul.

Helena And no love and no courage?

Hallemeier Well of course they don’t feel love.  Robots don’t love anything, not even themselves.   And courage?  I’m not so sure about that; a couple of times, not very often, mind,  they have shown some resistance ...

Helena What?

Hallemeier Well, nothing in particular, just that sometimes they seem to, sort of, go silent.  It’s almost like some kind of epileptic fit.  ‘Robot cramp’, we call it.  Or sometimes one of them might suddenly smash whatever's in its hand, or stand still, or grind their teeth– and then they just have to go on the scrap heap.  It’s clearly just some technical disorder.

Domin Some kind of fault in the production.

Helena No, no, that’s their soul!

Fabry Do you think that grinding teeth is the beginnings of a soul?

Domin We can solve that problem, Miss Glory.  Doctor Gall is carrying out some experiments right now. 

Dr. Gall No, not quite yet, Domin, at present I'm working on nerves for feeling pain. 

Helena Nerves for feeling pain?

Dr. Gall That's right.  Robots have virtually no sense of physical pain, as young Rossum simplified the nervous system a bit too much.  That turns out to have been a mistake and so we're working on pain now. 

Helena Why ... why ... if you don't give them a soul why do you want to give them pain?

Dr. Gall For good industrial reasons, Miss Glory.  The robots sometimes cause themselves damage because it causes them no pain; they do things such as pushing their hand into a machine, cutting off a finger or even smash their heads in.  It just doesn't matter to them.  But if they have pain it'll be an automatic protection against injuries. 

Helena Will they be any the happier when they can feel pain?

Dr. Gall Quite the opposite, but it will be a technical improvement.

Helena Why don't you create a soul for them?

Dr. Gall That's not within our power.

Fabry That wouldn't be in our interest.

Busman That would raise production costs.  Just think how cheaply we make them; a hundred and twenty dollars each, complete with clothing, and fifteen years ago they cost ten thousand!  Five years ago we still had to buy the clothes for them, but now we have our own weaving mills and even sell material at a fifth of the price of other mills.  Tell me, Miss Glory, what is it you pay for a metre of cloth?

Helena I don't know .. I really don't know ... I've forgotten.

Busman Dear dear me, and you were wanting to establish the League of Humanity!  Cloth now a days is three times cheaper, miss, the prices of everything are three times cheaper and they're still going down and down and down.

Helena I don't see what you mean.

Busman Dear lady, what I mean is that the price of labour is getting cheaper!  Even with its food, a robot costs no more than three quarters of a cent per hour!  It's wonderful; every factory is buying robots as quick as they can to reduce production costs, and those that aren't are going bankrupt.

Helena Yes, that's right, and throwing their workers out on the streets.

Busman Haha, well of course they are! And while they are doing that we are putting five hundred thousand tropical robots out on the Argentine pampas to cultivate wheat.  Tell me, what does a loaf of bread cost where you come from?

Helena I've no idea.

Busman There, you see; in good old Europe, a loaf of bread now costs two cents; but that bread comes from us, do you see?  Two cents a loaf; and the League of Humanity has no idea!  Haha, Miss Glory, you do not even know if you are paying too much for a crust.  Or too much for society or for anything else.  But in five years' time, dear me, do sit down!

Helena What?

Busman In five years' time, the price will be a tenth of a cent.  We'll be drowning in wheat and in everything else you can think of.

Alquist Yes, and all the workers in the world will be out of a job.

Domin (standing ) Yes, they will be, Alquist.  They will be, Miss Glory. But in ten years' time Rossum's Universal Robots will be making so much wheat, so much material, so much of everything that nothing will cost anything.  Everyone will be able to just take as much as he needs.  Nobody will live in poverty.  They won't have jobs, that's true, but that's because there won't be any jobs to do.  Everything will be done by living machines.  People will do only the things they want to do, they can live their lives just so that they can make themselves perfect. 

Helena (standing ) Do you think that's really going to happen?

Domin That's really going to happen.  It couldn't possibly not happen.  There might be some terrible things that happen before that, Miss Glory, that just can't be avoided, but then man will stop being the servant of other men or the slave of material things.  Nobody will have to pay for a loaf of bread with his life and with hatred.  You're not a labourer any more, you don't have to sit at a typewriter all day, you don't have to go and dig coal or stand minding somebody else's machines.  You don't need to lose your soul doing work that you hate. 

Alquist Domin, Domin!  You're making all this sound too much like Paradise.  Don't you think there was something good about serving others, something great about humility?  Wasn't there some sort of dignity about working and getting tired after a day's labour?

Domin Maybe there was.  But we can't always be thinking about the things we lost by changing the world as Adam knew it.  Adam had to gain his bread by the sweat of his brow, he had to suffer hunger and thirst, tiredness and humiliation; now is the time when we can go back to the paradise where Adam was fed by the hand of God, when man was free and supreme; man will once more be free of labour and anguish, and his only task will once again be to make himself perfect, to become the lord of creation.   

Helena Now you're confusing me; I'm only a silly girl. But I wish, I really wish I could believe in all that.

Dr.