Mirror-Image | by Isaac Asimov

Do you know what a mirror-image is? Well, most of you will be knowing. mirror-images are images that exactly the same, except that they are in opposite sides of a mirror. I bet you won't be knowing what a mirror-image incident is. Read  Isaac Asimov's story to find out, which is is somewhat like that.
In 'mirror-image' there are two mathematicians who are going to Aurora for an Interstellar conference on something very complicated(nuerobiophysics). One of them is Alfred Barr Humboldt, who is a very experienced mathematician, twenty-seven decades old! The other mathematician Gennao Sabbat, who is quite junior to Humboldt, less than fifty years of age, is very talented in mathematics. They both are travelling in  the same starship, Eta Carina, to attend the conference. While on the starship, a dispute is going on between these two people. According to Humboldt, he has discovered a new mathematical technique that may be better than any of his previous discoveries. Sabbat says the same except for the mirror-image reversal of names. It means that, according to Sabbat, it is he who had discovered it. Both of them say that the other mathematician stole his discovery. The captain of the ship is stuck because he does not know whom to believe. If the fight does not stop by the time they reach aurora, then all the blame will be put on the captain. R. Daneel(here R stands for Robot), a humanoid robot who is also travelling in the ship, suggests that they take help from someone on Earth, as they were within an easy jump of Earth. R. Daneel goes to Lije Baley, an Earthman who he already knew, for help. How will they be able to find out who is guilty and who is not. Of course they do have eye-witnesses, the robot servants of both the mathematicians. A very astonishing coincidence is that they both are of the same model, from the same factory, and made on the same day(an exact mirror-image!)

Mirror-Image

You can be bored at the start and middle of the story because everything is a mirror-image, but near the end, the story becomes interesting. This is my second Isaac Asimov book review and both of them are from a compilation of all Isaac Asimov robot stories, called The Complete Robot. If you are interested in science-fiction, then I would recommend that you read The Complete Robot.

The Complete Robot