How we cite our quotes: (Act.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Demand controls production. The whole world wanted its Robots. My boy, we did nothing but ride the avalanche of demand, and all the while kept blathering on—about technology, about the social question, about progress, about very interesting things. As though this rhetoric of ours could somehow direct the course of events. (2.165)
Busman is explaining how capitalism works. The consumers demand the product, the producers make it. There's ultimately no one at fault. It's a system for doing things without blaming anyone for it. So you can get the end of the world, and no one's to blame. That's an ingenious technological marvel if there ever was one.
Quote #8
O human star, burning without a flicker, perfect flame, bright and resourceful spirit. Each of your rays a great idea… (2.347)
Fabry is talking to a lamp, here. This sort of makes sense, since a lamp is a product of human ingenuity and knowledge. It's also kind of funny and ridiculous though—a lamp is just a lamp. It's a miracle, but it's also an everyday piece of clutter. Technology is often about being unable to tell the one from the other.
Quote #9
Imagine not writing it all down! (3.4)
Alquist can't believe that no one wrote down the formula for creating robots. Yeah, we can't really believe it either. It's pretty much… unbelievable. The factory was making hundreds of thousands of robots. For every one they had to go consult the same sheet of paper? Come on, now. No, they didn't write it down because the play needed the technology to fail, or be withdrawn. The plot required modernization to go backwards, for science to be undiscovered. In reality, that rarely happens. Or if it does, it takes a lot of time. Here, though, the play just chucks the unwanted technology into a plot hole.