R. Daneel Olivaw - Character Biography

Character Biography

Olivaw is a robot built by Roj Nemennuh Sarton and Han Fastolfe, who are Spacer roboticists from the planet Aurora, in the year 4720 AD. Although designed and built by Auroran roboticists, Olivaw was constructed on Earth. He is the first humanoid, or "humaniform," robot ever constructed and is virtually indistinguishable from a human being. This "undercover" attribute enables him to help earth-policeman Elijah Baley solve crimes. Olivaw and Baley first meet while Baley is investigating the murder of his co-creator Sarton in Spacetown. Olivaw is physically a perfect likeness of Dr. Sarton.

Olivaw has a broad, high-cheekboned face, and short bronze hair lying flatly backward, and without a parting. He wears clothes and, in The Caves of Steel, cannot be told apart from a human, unless he is seen in a situation where he refuses to violate the Three Laws of Robotics, and even in this case is indistinguishable from a particularly-altruistic person. In this novel, Daneel is also capable of conducting cerebroanalysis on humans as he meets them. Cerebroanalysis is the fictional analog of modern technology such as fMRI allowing empiricial verification of mental states, thus enabling Daneel to "read" the emotional content of a human's thoughts. This ability is somewhat similar to the telepathic abilities possessed by R. Giskard Reventlov, although Daneel lacks Giskard's ability to also influence human emotion and thought. Daneel's cerebroanalysis capabilities are absent in The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire. In Robots and Empire, however, Daneel ultimately gains Giskard's telepathic abilities.