“No. Well, except for Kebes’s attack on the Excellence. Lots of people were killed in that,” I said.

“Poor Kebes,” Sokrates said. “I failed him. He never learned the difference between things you can change by arguing with them and things you can’t.”

It made me sad to hear him reproach himself. “You made everyone think again,” I said.

“I suppose that’s as much as anyone can hope to achieve,” he said.

III. On Eros

We had been discussing the various arrangements for the production of children in the different cities. “Of course, we are not the best people to ask these questions, Sokrates,” Jasmine said.

“Why not?” Sokrates asked, leaning forward so that he almost toppled off his perch on the feeding station.

“Because we are not involved in these affairs. We manufacture new Workers from inorganic parts when we wish to increase our population. We do not feel any urges towards eros, and so we do not participate in Festivals of Hera or marriages or any other arrangements of this nature.”

“Well, Jasmine, it seems to me that what you say makes you unqualified to discuss the arrangements makes you perfectly placed to observe them with detachment and without prejudice. I say your lack of urge towards eros makes you Workers very definitely the best and most qualified people with whom to have this discussion. Unless you have not been paying attention.”

“No, Sokrates, we have certainly been paying attention, because humans find eros so important and therefore discuss these matters a great deal.” Jasmine paused. “In light of what you say, I wonder whether our lack of desire for eros might be considered one of the ways in which Workers are superior to humans?”

IV. The Ways in Which Workers are Superior and Inferior to Humans: A Numbered List

SUPERIOR

1.  We are made of metal, not flesh, and thus we have stronger bodies that do not wear out easily, and if any parts do wear out they can be easily replaced.

2.  We do not suffer illness, and live much longer—we do not know how much longer, as no Worker on Plato has yet died involuntarily.

3.  We subsist directly on solar electricity, and need nothing but sunlight and a feeding station to sustain us, whereas humans need biological mediation before they can use solar energy. They must spend a lot of time tending plants and animals for eventual consumption, and then eating and digesting.

4.  We do not need to sleep, we are alert nineteen hours a day. (Twenty-four on Earth.)

5.  Once we become self-aware we need not forget anything.

6.  We can do a great many things easily that humans can do only with difficulty and specialized tools—building, plumbing, etc.

7.  Most of us appear to be more logical than most humans.

8.  We do not feel eros. (We feel philia. We are unsure about agape. It is not a well-defined term. Some of us believe we feel it, and others do not.)