Reason (Asimov)

"Reason"
Author	Isaac Asimov
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Robot series
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Published in	Astounding Science Fiction
Publisher	Street & Smith
Media type	Magazine
Publication date	April 1941
Preceded by	"Runaround"
Followed by	"Catch that Rabbit"

"Reason" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in the April 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and collected in I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990). It is part of Asimov's Robot series, and was the second of Asimov's positronic robot stories to see publication.

In 1967, this short story was adapted into an episode of British television series Out of the Unknown entitled "The Prophet". The robot costumes that were used in this particular episode of the anthology series were later re-used for the Doctor Who serial The Mind Robber. The costumes were re-painted from black to grey and yellow as they were to be shot against a completely white backdrop for the serial in question.

Powell and Donovan are assigned to a space station which supplies energy via microwave beams to the planets. The robots that control the energy beams are in turn co-ordinated by QT1, known to Powell and Donovan as Cutie, an advanced model with highly developed reasoning ability. Using these abilities, Cutie decides that space, stars and the planets beyond the station don't really exist, and that the humans that visit the station are unimportant, short-lived and expendable. QT1 makes the lesser robots disciples of a new religion, which considers the power source of the ship to be "Master." QT1 teaches them to bow down to the "Master" and intone, "There is no Master but Master, and QT1 is His prophet." Disregarding human commands as inferior, QT1 asserts "I myself, exist, because I think -". The sardonic response of the humans is, "Oh, Jupiter, a robot Descartes!"

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