Good and evil

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Even though we never see Radagast interacting with the animals he is 'fond' of. I think we do see what he meant that Gandalf did know more about the 'birds and beasts' than Radagast's did, and he had more respect from them. As we see a long list of one rescuing the other (though Gwaihir's list of rescuing Gandalf is much longer! ).

Is it that Gandalf's knowledge comes from a more active research than the suspected more passivity of Radagast? Note that Gandalf somewhat aggressively goes searching for knowledge (i.e. Hobbits); did Radagast observe just those flora and fauna that were outside his window?

And, concerning the failure of Radagast, he erred as in the Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

It's not that the Brown Bomb actively tried to harm anyone, but that, as stated in #1, his inaction resulted in harm. He failed #2 as in not following the original plan, and we know that he would have (or may have) failed #3 as he was terrified of the coming of the Nine. Gandalf was fearful too, and yet he drew some of the Nine off in an effort to help Frodo, Strider etc.

A bad robot Radagast would have made.