Isaac Asimov: Segregationist
1) Describe the scene and situation at the start of the story.
-The scene is about a med-eng and a surgeon, who´s arguing about a metallic and a
polymeric heart, which one is best, the surgeon is against the metallic heart, because he
believes it´s wrong to replace the human nature with metal. The med-eng thinks it´s great,
and that there´s nothing wrong with replacing human nature with metal, in order to become
stronger.
2) How are the surgeon’s actions and reactions described?
-The surgeon is emotionless, it´s impossible to tell how he is feeling by his expressions. In
the end of the story, you will realize that the surgeon is actually a robot/cyborg, as his face
and arms are made of metal and possible the rest of his body as well.
3) Why does the surgeon want the senator (the patient) to choose a plastic heart (or
fibrous cyber-heart) instead of a metal one?
-Because the surgeon believes it´s wrong to replace human nature with metal. He wants the
senator to stay as human as possible, because more and more humans are becoming more
and more metal, and he is definitely against that.
4) Why does the senator prefer a metallic heart?
-The senator prefers the metallic heart, because it is stronger than the heart made of
polymeric material. He doesn’t care about becoming half robot one day, if that is needed for
him to stay alive, or eventually just get to a stronger condition.
5) What status do “Metallos” or robots have in this future society?
-The metallos has become citizen, living side by side with the humans, allowed to live like a
human. Ergo the robots have improved so far, that they have emotions and willpower.
6) Why is the surgeon opposed to a merger between humans and metallos/robots?
-Because it rules out human nature, the more robot, the less human, and soon a real human
being will be a rare sight. It´s obvious that he is against the robots taking over for us
humans, since they will both outlive and outsmart us without the slightest effort.
7) Twist and turns: Did the last twist of the story change the way you understood the
story?
-Yes, in the start I saw the surgeon as a middle-aged man, who was against the robots taking
the spots of humans. In the end when you realize that the surgeon is actually a robot himself,
I believe he is what used to be human, but had some sort of accident which required him to
turn robot in order to survive, maybe against his will. He doesn’t want the world to become
what he did, as he lost all his humanity and feels terrible about it. The reason he is that much
against turning humans to robots is that he believes they don’t know what it´s like, and he
doesn’t want them to experience it.
8) What does the title of the story mean, and what does it imply?
-Segregationist: a segregation is a separation of a specific race, class or ethnic group. Which
in this story must be the human race, as there are going to be less and less humans, and soon
they will probably get segregated. The “segregationist” is the surgeon, even though he is
against it, he does his job, separating human nature from robots. Whenever a human gets a
surgery to get metallic anyhow, they lose some of their humanity, but they get stronger as
well, which allows them to outmatch a natural human. Therefore the natural humans are
going to be segregated, because soon they will be no use for anything, as they are outdone
by robots in any stat. That will cause the population of natural humans to fall, as they are
going to be separated into their own space of uselessness, so who would want to stay human
then?