The society shown in "The Robots of Death" is one where higher class "founding families" (presumably a reference to the families that founded the colony planet) have hit financial difficulties and are forced to work with (and sometimes subordinate to) citizens who have achieved their power, influence and wealth through their own hard work and scheming. This has led to a certain amount of resentment between the new and old money, mirroring the decline in the financial power of the gentry in England. The society is also highly reliant on the use of robots at all levels, with three class of robot in use: Dum robots are for menial work, and are unable to speak; Voc robots are the next level up, and can speak, and have limited reasoning capabilities; Super-Voc robots are the most advanced, and can be used to monitor complex activities including the day-to-day activities of other, lower class robots. Each robot is given a designation based on its class (for example D-84 is a Dum class robot and SV-7 is a Super-Voc) and is programmed with a variant on Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.