Out of the Unknown

The positronic brain of robot RB-34(Herbie) has an unforeseen 'extra': he can read human thoughts. So his take on the First Law of Robotics ("A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") is unorthodox: he tells human beings only what he believes will not hurt their feelings. Can renowned robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin 'fix' RB-34? Or are there areas of her own psyche where she would rather not hear the truth?

If, by an accident of science, it became possible for the personality to pass at the moment of death into the mind of someone still alive, then the big new problem would be into whom. To foist the wits of a rogue onto an unwilling recipient would be unjust indeed. Any government who could thus cheat death might indeed win a popular vote, but only so long as all was voluntary - mutually contracted. James Hale is a man of such a society. He has insured against death of his personality by arranging mutual "Contact" contracts with his relatives. He is already host to his late father with whose memories and prejudices he has now learned to live. He himself is a responsible parent of twins whose Contact he will arrange when they are of age. He is also a warm-hearted man who, when he meets one Patrick Wilson, agrees to "take him on until he can can get fixed up with a friend". When, the morning after, it transpires that Patrick is in fact utterly friendless, James begins to get worried. He has, after all, a responsibility to his other Contacts - as they are quick to emphasise. He must go to the officials and "expunge" this incompatible Contact immediately. But Patrick is too quick for him...

Giant multi-generation starship with a virtual city of people on board. The ship has been travelling for so long that the occupants have long forgotten the mission and the purpose. They have invented a cult like religion worshipping the tree the wind and the grass even although none of them have ever experienced any of those things. Eventually alarms sound one day. The ship has navigated itself to the destination and the ""leader"" is informed of the mission purpose. The occupants are reluctant to leave the ship, something that the mission inventors had predicted, so the ship was flooded with gas to force the occupants out onto their new planetary home.

When a down-at-heel, alcoholic physician discovers a medical kit, based on future technology, accidentally left in the wake of a time-travel expedition, he becomes a dispenser of miracle cures. But is his discovery enough to salvage his self-esteem and redeem his life?