In Isaac Asimov's "The Little Lost Robot,"humans' fear of technology is reflected through the fears of the scientists that the little robot will somehow cause harm to humans. Humans, like most animals, tend to fear things that they do not understand and/or are unable to control. There have been numerous novels and movies that have addressed this human fear of technology in relation to lack of control and understanding. In "The Little Lost Robot," the robot is told to "get lost" by an impatient researcher. The robot, only able to take things literally, obeys that command and hides itself. Dr. Calvin, a head scientist, desperately looks for it because she fears that the robot will find a way to hurt someone. The robot eventually attacks her when it is—in order to continue to obey the command of being lost. This novel certainly reflects human distrust of technology that they do not understand. Additionally, this novel reflects the ways in which humans personify robots and put human-like qualities on them, which can lead to disastrous consequences. The robot is simply following the order it was given. However, Dr. Calvin is immensely worried that the robot would be scheming and plotting ways to hurt someone. Their fears eventually lead to the destruction of the robot.

"The Little Lost Robot" recasts the psychology between master and slave in technological terms. The problem of the story has to do with what happens when the basic programming of a robot is altered slightly—in this case, the First Law Of Robotics, that no robot can harm a human and must act to prevent any such harm from occurring. By eliminating the second part of the law, the robot in question gains the ability to choose to not act in cases where a human may come to harm through independent means. This becomes the source of an aberrant psychology—essentially, the beginnings of an ego and of independent thought. Of course the robot must be found and destroyed.

What's at stake in the story is the whole idea of obedience and robot servitude. It's unclear to what degree the robot does actually develop an independent identity, but Asimov is more interested in the desperation that the possibility of such a thing happening causes in the scientists who have been brought in to handle the problem. While the First Law may preserve human life, it also precludes robot "slaves" from ever feeling equal to their human masters. The paranoia of the scientists stems from knowledge that the robots really are superior. Programming logic always implies a certain hint of human morality, and once robots achieve that, they will soon sense their superiority and stop obeying.

This story is a perfect example of how humans create technology and instruct it on what to do, but this sometimes results in misunderstandings.  If a machine interprets something differently than the human intended, this can be destructive.  If humans fear that a robot will be destructive, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In this story, the human’s fears of the robot possibly hurting a human cause the robot to try to hurt a human.  If the people had not been trying to find and destroy the robot, it never would have tried to engage in self-preservation.  The robot was different, not just because it had been programmed differently, but because they treated it differently by reacting out of fear.

It turns out that making rules will not completely prevent destructiveness in technology.  The robot interprets things in black and white and literally.  When asked to get lost, it tries to make sure it cannot be found, instead of just going away.  The humans, on the other hand, try to look for loopholes in the robot’s rules that might make it more dangerous than the others.  This leads to their destruction of the robot when it tries to destroy them for trying to destroy it!

Humans can benefit greatly from technology, but we will also tend to distrust it.  We project our own fears onto the technology.  In this story, the fears were justified only because the humans acted first.