I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)

Posted on 2024-10-29 by thelittleman

This probably should have been the first Isaac Asimov book I ever read, but alas, I’m well past the point of “firsts.” I say it should have been my first, because it offers context for Susan Calvin that would have been very helpful to know when reading The Complete Robot (1982), what Asimov himself called the first book in the full backstory of the Foundation series.

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The context comes in Asimov’s introduction to this book, another fictitious scene set in roughly 2057, as a reporter interviews the aged, nearly retired robot psychologist, Susan Calvin. What I learned about her most significantly was that she’s just a year older than me. That might not seem like much, but hear me out.

Born in 1982, Susan Calvin (as Asimov envisioned her way back in 1950) lived through the same decades as I, only in an ulterior universe. Unlike me—who grew up with LPs, then cassette tapes, then CDs and MP3s and music streaming and AI—Susan Collins grew up with emotionless machines, then voiceless robots, then ultimately functional talking robots with whom she could converse and from who she could learn. Whereas I lived through the transitions from newspapers to the internet, from snail mail to email, and from landlines to smartphones, Susan Calvin lived through the transitions from “calculating machines” to positronic brain paths.

Our histories weren’t exactly parallel, of course, but our universes were. This put Asimov’s future history into a much better perspective for me.

The rest of the stories were re-reads for me, stories I’d read not only in The Complete Robot but elsewhere. Still, they were fun to review, though I don’t have much more insight than I did the first or second time reading them. As with all short-story collections, though, I’ll comment on each story in order, trying my best not to provides spoilers…even to stories nearly 75 years old!

The Stories

1. “Robbie” (1940) – I’ve wondered before that, if this wasn’t Asimov’s first-ever robot story, it certainly came close. The year is 1998. Susan Calvin is just 16 years old (and I’m 15, still trying to figure out girls and basketball). Robots are a new thing, and the Three Laws of Robotics haven’t yet been written. This story is a grand drama of a father letting his young daughter reunite with her voiceless robot and friend. Calvin’s not quite a character in this story, just a teenager sitting in the background watching the advancement of robotics unfold. It’s a great story, and truthfully Asimov’s best way to start this collection out.

2. “Runaround” (1942) – This collection was published six years before Asimov wrote the first (chronological) story in the Powell and Donovan series of short stories, “First Law” (1956). “Runaround” is the second story, though honestly no story the “series” depends on the information provided in the others. They’re standalones to be sure. On the planet Mercury, the robot dubbed “Speedy” (SPD) gets caught in an equilibrium between Laws 2-3 and can’t get out of it. He’s nearly drunk out there, uncertain of which law demands obedience. This is a great story with thrilling writing, so from the first two entries, this collection is proving to be a true goldmine of Asimov’s early writings.

3. “Reason” (1941) – This story also dates back to Asimov’s earliest days, yet it has also aged surprisingly well. I’ve noted elsewhere that the first time I read this story, it actually made me laugh audibly (hard to do!), because Powell and Donovan. while training machines to run a planet by themselves so humans needn’t stay, come across a robot that has essentially become a cult leader. I absolutely loved the mantra the drones repeat: “There is no Master but the Master, and QT-1 is his prophet.” Pure genius.

4. “Catch That Rabbit!” (1944) – The final Powell and Donovan story is a loser in my eyes. It’s a mystery we readers could never have figured out, simply because the clues and solution are as sci-fi as anything—not something that includes the logic of the Three Laws of Robotics and thus makes a modicum of sense. This one makes no sense to me. The final words, “twiddling his fingers,” loses its umph when the reader has almost no idea what in the world Asimov is talking about. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to follow him, but I really didn’t like this one.

5. “Liar!” (1941) – This one’s a psychological thriller, and its early publication date raises an interesting issue for me. Isaac Asimov had an amazing ability to write stories across the decades that maintained an exact feel. He wrote these stories on a whim, completely out of chronological order, yet when you read them in the order that the stories are meant to run (for the most part—I’ve never read through Asimov’s Future History, though I want to!), you could never guess at when during his career he’d published them. It’s really quite a feat! What’s also cool is that Baley (living 1000+ years later) discussed this very story in Robots of Dawn. The connections throughout his decades of writing really are dazzling.

6. “Little Lost Robot” (1947) – This longer story about a robot who lacks the First Law yet who is hiding out among a large group of identical models is a striking premise. Susan Calvin must communicate with each robot to help determine which one’s the rat. I especially liked the part about how the robot escaped in the first place, leaving because some angry technician told him to “get lost,” along with some other expletives which we’re not allowed to hear. It’s a good strong mystery story that again would mean nothing outside the world that Asimov has created.

7. “Escape!” (1945) – The fact that Asimov included this story in the mix too makes me think that I, Robot really is the quintessential collection of Asimov stories out there. It’s got all my favorites! In this one, the Brain is a childlike computer used for extracting information, though it simply cannot work through the dilemma of hurting humans, even if hurting some helps rescue the rest of humanity. The Brain creates a ship that can exit the galaxy and does so with 2 men aboard, yet he controls every bit inside, so the men are lost completely to The Brain’s childish whims! Susan Calvin spends the entire time trying to figure out The Brain’s intentions, and she finally settles on the silly truth. It’s long and laborious, yet likely another necessary piece to the puzzle that is Foundation.

8. “Evidence” (1946) – A prosecutor is suspected of himself being a robot, though he might also be just a really nice guy. The question is whether or not he will break Rule 1 when provoked. It’s a story that leaves us with questions, certainly, but I think Asimov did a good job of stringing us along. Susan is the only one willing to consider the psychological side of the human-robot conflict. And she maintains her opinions that (by now) are set in stone. She is after all the first, only, and most important Robot Psychologist—so what would the universe do without her?

9. “The Evitable Conflict” (1950) – Asimov closes this early collection with a fantastic story in which the characters find themselves in a fight over control of the whole world, perhaps moving away from the power-center of the North to that of the food-producing Tropics. The Machine that helps control the data of the whole world is predicting troubles, though it may be that it’s basing its decisions on bad data input by humans. The Machine realizes that in order to save humanity, it must first save itself: humanity left to its own devices, after all, is pure trouble! The Machine knows the ultimate goal of humanity based on the collective human conscience—which is something Elon Musk just described not that long ago regarding AI. Who’s there to stop such a knowledgeable and dangerous presence as The Machine? Thankfully, Susan Calvin and Elon Musk exist! (Sort of).

Conclusion

This was a fun book to review, filled with some of my favorite stories and some new insights to boot. If you want a first taste of Asimov in short form, I think this would be a great place to start. If you want a fuller look at the man and his prolific writing career, either Google him or check out more of my other reviews (which I’d argue is much more fun).

©2024 E.T.

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