Segregationist (short story)

"Segregationist" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story was written in April 1967 and was first published in December in "Abbottempo", a magazine produced by Abbott Laboratories, then later included in the collections "Nightfall and Other Stories" (1969), "The Complete Robot" (1982) and "Robot Visions" (1990).

The story takes place in a future where robotic limbs and artificial organic limbs for robots and human beings have been created. Many humans have taken on robotic limbs and many robots have taken on artificial organic limbs, making the two appear more similar. The story centers on a visit by a man to the doctor's office. The doctor, who is to perform heart replacement surgery on the man, offers him a choice between a metallic or semi-organic one. The man stubbornly refuses the doctor's attempts to persuade him to accept an organic heart, saying that it's "weak."

As the man is leaving, the doctor remarks to a robotic aide that he would rather that humans and robots stick to being humans and robots instead of replacing their body parts with those that would make them similar to each other. The robot aide remarks that such talk was "segregationist," to which the doctor replies that he "doesn't care." At the end, the doctor is revealed to be a robot.