U.S. Robots has done the miraculous—developed a mind-reading robot. The secret is known only to four of its top researchers, including the cold-as-ice Susan Calvin. The robot, however, knowing the deepest thoughts and pains of the people around it tries desperately to convince them that the happiness they yearn for is just around the corner for them, but fails when it convinces Calvin that the man of her dreams really loves her. When that proves untrue, Calvin loses control and attacks the robot bitterly, forcing it to burn out its own brain because the paradox of being forever aware of what would make people happy and unable to provide it (a violation of the First Law).

Asimov was very fond of this story, and even worked it into The Robots of Dawn when a second mind-reading (and mind controlling) robot was brought into existence. I'm not quite as fond of it as Asimov is. I think it does point out an interesting problem in terms of the Three Laws—how could they be truly carried out when what we need to make us happy is often impossible or even not in our best interests?

The style, however, is comparatively primitive. Always uncomfortable as I am with characters in stories being put in awkward social situations, my insides get all twisted up every time I have to read about poor Susan Calvin experimenting with make-up in a vain attempt to get Milton Ashe to notice her. And it’s rather unfortunate that Calvin is portrayed in a rather sexist fashion here: Asimov made her up and introduced her as a character precisely to show what a mind-reading robot would do to her type of woman, the secret romantic whom romance has never touched because of her own lack of good looks and social skills, the female bookworm who is as cold as ice. It was rather a stereotype then (and still is, I suppose—look at how Lilith Sternen was initially handled on "Cheers"), and a rather unfortunate thing that it cropped up in Asimov’s early work like this.

However, the real sign of Asimov’s genius is what he did with Calvin once he'd used her in this sexist fashion, the end result being one of his most vivid and interesting and significant literary creations.