Block
Frenzy
Jump Up
+ST
Guard
Mighty Blow
Daneel is a robot built by Roj Nemennuh Sarton and Han Fastolfe, who are Spacer roboticists from planet Aurora, in 4920 AD. Unlike many robots of the period, Daneel is constructed to be virtually indistinguishable from a human being (an android) and was the first of the humanoid robots. This "undercover" attribute enables him to help earth-policeman Elijah Baley solve crimes. Daneel and Baley first meet while Baley is investigating the murder of his co-creator Sarton in Spacetown.
Daneel has a broad, high-cheekboned face and short bronze hair lying flatly backward and without a part. He wore 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. In this novel, Daneel was also capable of conducting cerebroanalysis on humans as he met them.
Daneel and Baley work together on a murder case on Spacer planet Solaria, as well as on the case of the "roboticide" of Daneel's "brother", Jander Panell. Also on Aurora, he first meets R. Giskard Reventlov, a robot with unique telepathic and mind control powers. In an interesting evolution of robotic sociology, Daneel comes to see the need for a new law to be added to Asimov's now familiar "Three Laws of Robotics" -- the "Zeroth Law of Robotics" ("A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm") after both robots come to see the incompleteness of the existing Laws. The Zeroth Law proves destructive to Giskard's positronic brain when he attempts to act upon it, as he could not tell whether his actions would save humanity or destroy it, resulting in a life-threatening "moral" conflict. Giskard bestows his abilities to Daneel, who over the course of 20,000 years adapts himself to be able to fully obey the Zeroth Law without the risk of shutdown. Together Daneel and Giskard imagine the science of "psychohistory" or laws of humanics, that would enable them to execute the "Zeroth Law" in a quantitative sense. Years later this would be developed into practical application by Hari Seldon.
For that time onward, Daneel manipulates the galaxy with the help of his many robot allies. He sets up both the Galactic Empire and Gaia in order to create a society that does not need robots. Under the guise of Eto Demerzel, he becomes the first minister to galactic Emperor