I, Robot (original 1950; edition 1985)

I don't remember this very well, I'm going to have to reread it. I know the movie is compleeeeetely different, although I haven't seen that, either. ( )

This is actually a collection of short stories, connected by a frame story in which a narrator is interviewing one of the recurring characters, a robot psychologist. All of the stories explore themes related to the famous three laws of robotics, and what happens when the laws go wrong.

As always with classic sci-fi, it's fascinating seeing how modern technology differs from decades-old ideas of what our technology will be. In this case, Asimov's robots are controlled entirely by circuitry - there is only hard-coded hardware, with no software at all. Any time something goes wrong with a robot, they have to debug the circuits, not rewrite the software. It's also fascinating how much humans are at the mercy of their robots - they must placate the robots, must come up with ways of working around how the robots work, instead of changing how the robots work.

It's also interesting how sexist this book seems now. I'm sure that when it was written, it was not sexist at all. The main character, Susan Calvin, is the world's most prominent robot psychologist. She acts like a lot of women who were early pioneers in their fields - she's cold and can be pretty bitchy, and men find her intimidating and inaccessible, and of course she's a spinster. There is one story where she is allowed to have emotions, and in that story she is hopelessly in love with another character and cakes her face with makeup and fawns over him. For the time, she's a wonderfully assertive and intelligent strong female character... by today's standards, the portrayal of her is pretty sexist.

All in all, I found this more interesting as a study in mid 20th-century understanding of technology than as a novel.

I listened to the audiobook, and Scott Brick's narration is quite good. ( )

I quite enjoyed this book... It was DEFINITELY not a Will Smith thriller, but was actually a compilation of short stories (with some dialogue that sorta ties them together). It was really interesting. I enjoyed some stories more than others... (That one was a bit annoying... reminded me too much of [b:2001: A Space Odyssey|70535|2001 A Space Odyssey|Arthur C. Clarke|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170735590s/70535.jpg|208362]...) But overall, it was pretty dang cool.

So, the stories are all told by a woman named Susan Calvin, a robopsychologist with the U.S. Robots company. They are told in chronological order, and sorta give us an idea of how robots/robotics progressed during her lifetime — from quite rudimentary, to something the entire world relies on daily on a local and global level.

Each story has something to do with the Three Laws of Robotics, and how they don't always work in predictable ways.... They are as follows:

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

They seem simple enough, but each short story presents some kind of dilemma where the laws are interpreted in unforeseen ways that cause complications. And each story is essentially a brainteaser... a conundrum to be solved. Susan Calvin, who is said to like robots more than humans, tends to be the one to crack the case... :) Again, not a thriller (although the movie is really cool), but the book is cool on its own (intellectually higher) level.

I do have to say that while I got super sucked into the story, nothing pierces that suspension of reality faster than when Isaac Asimov starts putting price tags on the top-secret robots... $20,000? $200,000? I can't remember, but that price is SO INCREDIBLY LOW that you're like, "Uhhh... this is totally fiction written in 1950." :) But it's completely hysterical (and very nearly CUTE) how underestimated the prices are that they can be overlooked. ;) ( )

Been putting off this review forever, because I have...issues with this story.

Intellectually, I fully engaged with Asimov's tale. But I also suspect that this story planted the seed that created my refusal to accept defeatist views of reality.

Why? Well, my Dad gave me The Foundation Trilogy. So I guess I was programmed at an early age to believe that winning is always possible...so long as we keep working to figure out how to accomplish the task.

So, yeah, on the surface this is just a robot tale. But IMO, it is really an allegory for mankind's struggle to find the right path. (Are we there yet?) ( )

Probably the most interesting of the short stories for me was 'Evidence'. I don't want to give too much away, but it deals with the notion of robots among humans. The ending leaves one guessing what is reality. Very interesting and way ahead of its time.

'The Evitable Conflict' (which would might call today inevitable) was interesting as far as predictions of the earth being divided into regions North, South, West and East. Asimov correctly predicted the rise of China in influence, albeit not sure the capital of North America would be "Ottawa" (would love it to be, as it is picturesque capital city of Canada). Humans and robots eventually come into conflict. This theme was explored in later times with the Terminator series of films.

It is always a pleasure reading classic sci-fi to see 60 years on what they predicted correctly and what they got completely wrong. It was enjoyable to note that Asimov made a female scientist as the main protagonist of the short stories, well ahead of what I would argue as general acceptance during the 1950's when this novel was published.
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