I, Robot (original 1950; edition 1991)

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It's a series of short stories revolving around Susan Calvin, a robopsychologist with the company U.S. Robots. The stories show the progression of robots (from ones that can't even talk to the machines that govern how the planet operates) and the relationship humans have with them.

I really enjoyed the overall arc and how it was presented. I also really dug how most of the stories were puzzles about why robots were acting in a certain way, and how the Three Laws of Robots were manipulated in order to solve them.

I, Robot is completely accessible, entertaining, and hardly feels dated despite its 50+ years of age. I found myself laughing quite a bit, especially as the field engineers, Powell and Donovan, kept running into crazy situations.

I did wonder if I should have just picked up The Complete Robot instead, but after finishing I, Robot, I think that the selection of stories here made perfect sense to read alone. I'll definitely be reading more Asimov sooner than later. ( )

Ok, read. Not my sort of read. Really annoyed by the overly dramatic scientists. I would probably read more Asimov. ( )

Loved the story about the skeptic robot that finds the humans' explanation of his origin too implausible. Having to explain the world around to an intelligent robot is also a nice way to tell the reader about the context of the story.

The book is made up of several short stories that resolve around dilemmas robots face regarding following 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 the 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 Laws.

However the crux of the stories are often incoherent, as when a puzzle in one story is "solved" by noting that a robot cannot allow to expose a human of any amount of risk, but this must be the case with any action or inaction, so these robots would never get started. ( )

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. ( )