I, Robot - Isaac Asimov - Robot Series - Easton Press

I, Robot is a collection of nine English language science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950. The stories are woven together as if Dr Susan Calvin is telling them to a reporter (the narrator) in the 21st century. Though the stories can be read separately, they share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots and morality, and when combined they tell a larger story of Asimov's fictional history of robotics.

Several of the stories feature the character of Dr. Susan Calvin, chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots. Upon their publication in this collection, Asimov wrote a framing sequence presenting the stories as Calvin's reminiscences during an interview with her about her life's work, chiefly concerned with aberrant behaviour of robots, and the use of "robopsychology" to sort them out. The book also contains the short story in which Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics first appear. Other characters that appear in these short stories are Powell and Donovan, a field-testing team which locates flaws in USRMM's prototype models.

The book also contains the short story in which Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics first appear. Other characters that appear in these short stories are Powell and Donovan.

The title was applied earlier to a short story by Eando (Earl and Otto) Binder. Asimov originally titled his collection Mind and Iron, and initially objected when the publisher changed the title.

 

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Influence

See also: The Three Laws of Robotics in popular culture
In 2004 The Saturday Evening Post said that I, Robot's Three Laws "revolutionized the science fiction genre and made robots far more interesting than they ever had been before." I, Robot has influenced many aspects of modern popular culture, particularly with respect to science fiction and technology. One example of this is in the technology industry. The name of the real-life modem manufacturer named U.S. Robotics was directly inspired by I, Robot. The name is taken from the name of a robot manufacturer ("United States Robots and Mechanical Men") that appears throughout Asimov's robot short stories.

Many works in the field of science fiction have also paid homage to Asimov's collection. The animated science fiction/comedy Futurama makes several references to I, Robot. The title of the episode "I, Roommate" is a spoof on I, Robot although the plot of the episode has little to do with the original stories.[10] Additionally, the episode "The Cyber House Rules" included an optician named "Eye Robot" and the episode "Anthology of Interest II" included a segment called "I, Meatbag." Also in "Bender's Game" the psychiatric doctor is shown a logical fallacy and explodes when the assistant shouts "Liar!" a la "Liar!". An episode of the original Star Trek series, "I, Mudd" which depicts a planet of androids in need of humans references "I, Robot." Another reference appears in the title of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "I, Borg". in which Geordi La Forge befriends a lost member of the Borg collective and teaches it a sense of individuality and free will.

The positronic brain, which Asimov named his robots' central processors, is what powers Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as other Soong type androids. Positronic brains have been referenced in a number of other television shows including Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time... Space, Perry Rhodan, The Number of the Beast, and others.

Author Cory Doctorow has written a story called "I, Robot" as homage to Asimov, as well as "I row-boat", both released in the short-story collection Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present. He has also said, "If I return to this theme, it will be with a story about uplifted cheese sandwiches, called 'I, Rarebit.'"

Other cultural references to the book are less directly related to science fiction and technology. The 1977 album I Robot, by The Alan Parsons Project, was inspired by Asimov's I, Robot. In its original conception, the album was to follow the themes and concepts presented in the short story collection. The Alan Parsons Project were not able to obtain the rights in spite of Asimov's enthusiasm; he had already assigned the rights elsewhere. Thus, the album's concept was altered slightly although the name was kept (minus comma to avoid copyright infringement). The 2002 electronica album by experimental artist Edman Goodrich (known, at times, to operate under the aliases of "je, le roi!" and "The Ghost Quartet") shares the title of I, Robot, and is heavily influenced by Asimovian themes. The 2009 album, I, Human, by Singaporean band Deus Ex Machina draws heavily upon Asimov's principles on robotics and applies it to the concept of cloning.

The Indian science fiction film Endhiran, released in 2010, refers to Asimov's three laws for artificial intelligence for the fictional character Chitti: The Robot. When a scientist takes in the robot for evaluation, the panel enquires whether the robot was built using the Three Laws of Robotics.

 

Isaac Asimov's Robot Series

The immortal science fiction classics…

I, Robot
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
The Robots of Dawn

One of the greatest science-fiction series ever written by one of the greatest science fiction authors in the history of the genre. Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of short stories and novels.

Short stories

Most of Asimov's robot short stories are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration. The most unique feature of Asimov's robots are the Three Laws of Robotics, which all robots in his fiction must obey, and which ensure that robots don't turn against their creators. One of those stories, "The Bicentennial Man", was later expanded by Asimov and Robert Silverberg into a novel The Positronic Man.

The stories were not initially conceived as a set, but rather all feature his positronic robots -- indeed there are some inconsistencies among them, especially between the short stories and the novels. They all, however, share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots and morality. Some of the short stories found in The Complete Robot and other anthologies are clearly not set in the same universe as most of them (the Foundation Universe), even though they feature positronic robots obeying the Three Laws. These stories are "Let's Get Together" and "Victory Unintentional".

Robot novels

The final four robot novels comprise the Elijah Baley (sometimes Lije Baley) series and are mysteries starring the Terran human Elijah Baley and his humaniform robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. They are set approximately 2000 years after the short stories, and focus on the conflicts between Spacers - descendants of human settlers from other planets, and the people from overcrowded Earth. One of the short stories from The Complete Robot - "Mirror Image" anthology is also set in this time period (between The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun), and features both Baley and Olivaw. Another short story (found in The Early Asimov anthology), "Mother Earth", is set about a thousand years before the robot novels, when the Spacer worlds chose to become separated from Earth.

Merging with other series

Asimov later integrated the Robot Series into his all-engulfing Foundation series, making R. Daneel Olivaw appear again twelve thousand years later in the age of the Galactic Empire in sequels and prequels to the original Foundation trilogy, and in the final book of the Robots series - Robots and Empire, we learn how the worlds that later formed the Empire were settled, and how Earth became radioactive (which was first mentioned in Pebble in the Sky).

Other authors

Shortly before his death in 1992, Asimov approved an outline for three novels (Caliban, Inferno, Utopia) by Roger MacBride Allen, set between Robots and the Empire and the Empire Series, telling the story of the terraforming of the Spacer world Inferno, and about the robot revolution started by creating a No Law Robot and then New Law Robots.

There is also another set of novels by various authors (Isaac Asimov's Robots series/Robot City series/Robots and Aliens series/Robots in Time series) loosely connected to the Robots Series, but they contain many inconsistencies with Asimov's books, and are not generally considered canon.

List of Robot Series books

Short stories

Short story collections
I, Robot (1950), the first collection of Asimov's robot stories, which were all included in The Complete Robot, but it contains also interesting binding text, no longer in The Complete Robot.

The Complete Robot (1982), Collection of Asimov Robot stories written between 1940 and 1976. Note that not all of them are part of the Foundation universe.

The Positronic Man (1992), A novel based on Asimov's short story "The Bicentennial Man", co-written by Robert Silverberg

Other stories
The Complete Robot includes most of Asimov's robot stories, but not all. Stories not included in that book are:

"Robot Dreams" (1986), Anthologized in a book with the same title.
"Christmas Without Rodney" (found in Robot Visions)
"Cal" (found in Gold)
"Kid Brother" (found in Gold)
"Mother Earth" (1949) (found in The Early Asimov, volume 3)

The Robot novels
The Caves of Steel (1954)
The Naked Sun (1957)
The Robots of Dawn (1983)
Robots and Empire (1985)

The Caliban trilogy
Isaac Asimov's Caliban (1993) by Roger MacBride Allen
Isaac Asimov's Inferno (1993) by Roger MacBride Allen
Isaac Asimov's Utopia (1993) by Roger MacBride Allen
 

Robot Series Characters

Robot short stories
Susan Calvin, robopsychologist
Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan, roboticists
Stephen Byerley, politician
Lawrence Robertson, Director of U.S. Robot and Mechanical Men Inc.
Andrew Martin, the first android

Robot novels
Elijah Baley, detective from Earth
R. Daneel Olivaw, a detective robot
R. Giskard Reventlov, a telepathic robot
Gladia Delmarre
Han Fastolfe, roboticist
Kelden Amadiro

Additional information and source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot