Book Review: I, Robot

I, Robot is a collection of nine short stories by influential science-fiction author, Isaac Asimov.

This being the very first time I’ve read Asimov’s work for myself, I had absolutely no idea what to expect going in. Isaac Asimov is one of the heavyweights of science-fiction; a pioneer for many of the ideas and concepts that we take for granted in the genre today. His ideas and concepts are discussed at great length in a great many places, and rightly so. But, being such high-concept, his stories often take a backseat. In fact, as a child, when I first heard of Asimov and his Three Laws of Robotics, I had no idea he was a fiction author. From the way the adults around me spoke of him, it seemed as if he were an early scientist working out of a robotics lab, and his Three Laws came out of a science journal or peer-reviewed paper. Later, of course I learned the truth, but still confusion persisted regarding his stories. Especially, as I was told by my dad, that I, Robot wasn’t really a “story” per se (I think this was part of a wider discussion with him about why he was so unimpressed with the Will Smith movie - I still like that, by the way, don’t @ me).

So I’m glad I have been able to take the opportunity to read some of Asimov’s work for myself, because now I understand.

Summary

Originally published separately across several science-fiction magazines, I, Robot is a collection of nine related short stories, written in the 1940s. The collection had extra segments added that frame them as part of an interview with an aging robopsychologist, Dr Susan Calvin as she recalled her life working for the U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men corporation, and the history of humanity’s relationship with advanced thinking robots in the first half of the 21st century (80-120 years in the future from Asimov’s perspective). The stories themselves centre around the application of 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 it by a human being 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.

In general, the format the stories take is: humans find robots to be acting strangely, use the logic of the Three Laws to understand the robot’s behaviour, and thereby come up with a solution to the problem at hand.

Review

At first I wasn’t convinced that I was going to enjoy this book. The first story, Robbie - about a little girl and her non-verbal “pet” robot - didn’t really capture me at all. But it got a lot better from there. And I mean a lot.

Let’s not mince words here, there are a lot of things in this collection that do not hold up to modern sensibilities or standards; that’s to be expected. They were written in the 1940s after all. Social norms were very different from those of today, and that is, sadly, reflected in the storytelling. By the same token, writing styles have changed, and our approach to character, plot and pacing are different. That’s not an indictment of the book itself; it is what it is. But going in aware of this helps to place the book in its proper context, and helps with reading it.

The concepts presented in this book to do with robots are nothing short of brilliant. They’re highly regarded and influential for a very good reason. It was a joy to see the genesis of so many things with which I was already familiar from other, later properties. The positronic brain, which many of us will know as the type of brain the android Data has in Star Trek: The Next Generation, finds its origin here in the very second story, Runaround. And there are many other such examples spread throughout.

I mentioned above that the plots in the stories often take a backseat to the concepts they’re presenting, and, well, that’s true. if you’re expecting exciting plots, engaging character arcs or beautiful prose, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. The characters are all practically the same: dispassionate, proper, professional, business-like and in possession of a stiff-upper-lip attitude. Except Dr Susan Calvin, of course; she’s the (literally only) woman after all. She’s the sole source of emotion (even though that emotion is mostly just supreme irritability) and though her expertise in the field of robopsychology often leads her to be proven right, she is hardly ever taken seriously by her peers. Put short, as a character, she’s done dirty by consequence of the time in which this book was written. Additionally, characters go through no change at all through the progression of the overarching story. The plots are simply a vehicle for presenting the concept (this isn’t as bad as it sounds though, as I will get onto later), and the prose just about gets the job done. Info-dumping is a little much in places, and the explanations of some of the concepts can get quite dry, which makes some stories difficult to get through (though mercifully they’re short). For instance, in The Evitable Conflict we’re treated to a fairly lengthy section all about the industrial outputs of various regions on Earth. It’s very detailed, and very dull).

It was fascinating reading the book from the perspective of a 21st Century science-fiction writer. I, Robot is a great look at 1940s futurism, and it was a little bit depressing to think that some of the stuff that Asimov predicts happening 80-120 years in his future - which all sound perfectly plausible (the book is hard science-fiction after all) - are still things that we’re dreaming of today. And even more of a kicker is that we still think of them as 80-120 years away. It put things like The Expanse into a strange perspective for me, as we’re as far away from that now as I, Robot was from the 2020s. There were also funny moments where some things were predicted with a fair amount of accuracy - from mundane things like video calling, to more advanced things such as wireless power transfer using microwave beams - but other aspects are notably absent. For example, there is video calling, and Asimov’s future world has positronic brains and nascent FTL travel, but there’s no digital storage. Recordings still use film and they need time to be developed; amazing!

Going back to the stories’ plots, they go hand-in-hand with the concepts they’re presenting, and do so (for the most part) excellently. There are some truly great stories in this book from that perspective. My favourite by far is Reason, whereby a new type of robot put to work in a base on Mercury cannot see the logic in the explanation of its origin from the two humans who built it, and so, using its own logic, becomes the leader of a robot religion centred around the base’s main power generator. Some other stories I really enjoyed were Liar! for its intrigue, Little Lost Robot for its creativity and Escape! for its depiction of interstellar travel.

I, Robot, is a science-fiction classic for a reason, and it has definitely got me thinking a lot more about how I depict AI in my own work. I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone, especially if you’re looking for a good story to get lost in. But it’s intelligent, intriguing and there’s a lot to like about it. So, if you’re science-minded, and like tech-based hard sci-fi with great applications of logic, then you’ll enjoy this. If you’re looking to write sci-fi - particularly involving artificial intelligence - I’d definitely recommend this for research purposes.