The Positronic Man

"This is u

Paul said, "Let's not argue, all right? I can't take the money with me and there isn't anything I'd rather do with it than leave it to you, so that's the way it's going to be. And I don't want to consume any more of my remaining life-span discussing the matter with you. Let's talk about something else. -What are you working on these days?"

"Biology, still."

"What aspect in particular?"

"Metabolism."

"Robot metabolism, you mean? There isn't any such thing, is there? Or is there? Do you mean android metabolism? Human metabolism?"

"All three," Andrew said. " A synthesis of sorts." He paused, and then he went plunging ahead. Why hold anything back from Paul? "I've been designing a system that would allow androids-I mean myself; I am still the only functioning android, am I not?-to draw energy from the combustion of hydrocarbons rather than from atomic cells."

Paul gave him a long, slow look.

"You mean," he said finally, "that you want to make it possible for an android to be able to breathe and eat the same way humans do?"

"Yes."

"You've never mentioned any such project as this to me before, Andrew. Is it something new?"

"Not really. In truth, Paul, it is the reason I began all this biological research in the first place."

Paul nodded abstractedly. It was as though he was listening from a very great distance. He seemed to be having a difficult time absorbing what Andrew was telling him.

"And have you achieved anything significant so far?" he asked, after a time.

"I am approaching something significant," Andrew said. "It needs more work but I think I have succeeded in designing a compact combustion chamber that will be adequate for catalyzed controlled breakdown."

"But why, Andrew? What's the point of it? You know that it can't possibly be as efficient as the atomic cell your body uses now."

"Very likely not," said Andrew. "But it ought to be efficient enough. At least as efficient as the system that the human body uses, I would say, and not all that different from it in fundamental principle. The main problem with the atomic cell, Paul, is that it is inhuman. My energy-my very life, you could say-is drawn from a source that is wholly other than human. And I am not content with that."