a minute and then slowly sat down on the ground .
“Are you here, boss?”
Powell and Donovan jumped off the rock. "What's been happening, Dave?' Powell asked.
The robot shook his head. "I don't know. One moment I was working on a difficult rock in Tunnel 17, and the next moment I was aware of humans near me.”
"Where are the subsidiaries now?’
Back at Tunnel 17, of course. How much time has been lost?
"Not much," Powell replied. "Mike, stay with him for the rest of the day."
Three hours later Donovan returned. "Nothing goes wrong when you watch them," he said tiredly.
Powell pushed his chair back and put his feet on the desk.
“Listen, Mike. I've got an idea," he began. "Dave never goes wrong when a human is near him. When he is wrong, the arrival of a human solves the problem.”
"I told you that I feel uneasy about that."
"Be quiet. How is a robot different when humans are absent? The answer is obvious. The robot needs to use more personal initiative.”
Donovan sat up straight. "There isn't just one part of the body which controls personal initiative. Look, I'm a specialist in robot circuits, as you know, and I can tell you all the circuits are involved. We need to find out what particular condition sends him wrong, and then start looking at the circuits.'
Powell said cautiously,” Suppose we interview a subsidiary?”