1950, I, Robot Is Sometimes Referred to

¶ … 1950, I, Robot is sometimes referred to as a novel, but it is a collection of short stories written over a ten-year period, all but one having appeared in Astounding magazine. There are several characters that do appear in most of the stories, and Asimov had also written connecting passages in order for them to have a more cohesive and episodic flow. The book tells the history of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men.

In one of the stories, "Little Lost Robot," it is Susan Calvin who is called upon to find the solution. In her first venture away from Earth she travels to HyperBase, where robots and human engineers are endeavoring to create a "hyperatomic" propulsion system in an effort to launch the first interstellar voyages.

Due to hazardous radiation conditions necessary for the project the robots' adherance to the Three Laws have been supressed, since before they had been compelled to rescue the human engineers from certain experimental conditions (due to the first law). One engineer, in a fit of pique against a troublesome robot, tells the machine to "Get lost!" Uncapable of doing anything but take the human order literally, the robot "loses" himself among sixty-two other robots of identical manufacture.

The possibility of the news of robots who do not conform to the Three Laws reaching Earth makes the discovery of the lost robot of utmost importance. So, the humans got the robots to do the work and to allow the humans to certain levels of radiation by supressing the Three Laws. Asimov is more highly regarded for the intellectual puzzles he presented in these and other stories rather than for character development. The best story in this collection is one of the exceptions to that rule.

"Liar!" presents a vivid portrait of Susan Calvin, a shy and sensitive woman who has devoted her whole life to the understanding of the psychology of the positronic brain of the robot. In this story we discover she is also quite susceptible to the human emotions of love, vanity, jealousy, and anger. The focus this time is on the robot Herbie, who happens to be able to read the minds of his human creators.

Due to the restrictions of the First Law, Herbie is forced to lie to them since he knows what they are thinking and that the truth will hurt their feelings. He is unable to tell Lanning and Bogert about the stage in his manufacture that caused his unique condition since the truth of a robot solving the puzzle would harm their self-esteem. The lie he tells Susan Calvin is that the man she secretly admires, Milton Ashe, is actually in love with her.

The fact that the lies harm the humans as much as the truth causes Herbie to withdraw into a catatonic state, unable to reconcile his actions with his understanding of the Three Laws. In the majority of the stories the robots described are mechanical constructs of different designs, with various improvements and innovations incorporated into each successive generation. The last two stories in the book, "Evidence" and "The Evitable Conflict," present the possibility of a robot with a human appearance.

The character of Stephen Byerly is a judge and a candidate for mayor of a large metropolitan city. His opponent is convinced he is a robot constructed to replace the original Byerly, who had been the victim of a tragic accident years before. The fact that Byerly refuses to undergo certain tests to prove or disprove this assertion does not bode well for his case. His defense is one of human rights and privacy. Susan Calvin and others from U.S.

Robots are called upon to convince Byerly to submit to the tests. Even though Calvin suspects he is a robot, she defends his position since she has always been more fond of robots than of other humans. Another aspect of the tale is the contention that a robot who conforms to the Three Laws exhibits behavior one would expect of a truly enlightened and benevolent human.

In the end, Byerly strikes a man and, generally, it is assumed that he is therefore not a robot as striking a human is in direct violation of the First Law. However, I personally believe that the "man" Byerly struck was merely another robot and, therefor, Byerly is a robot and not in violation of the First Law. Basically, it was just an act.

The first story in the sequence, "Robbie," was also the first of the robot stories written by Asimov, but the order of the others in the book are in several cases not the same as their written order. "Robbie" was originally titled "Strange Playfellow," and it appeared in Super Science Stories in 1940. Robbie is a domestic robot in the employ of George Weston, and is used primarily as a nanny and playmate to his daughter Gloria.

She grows extremely fond of Robbie and rarely plays with anyone else, in spite of her mother's insistence that she make friends with the other children in the neighborhood. Mrs. Weston's anxiety over the situation is heightened as a result of increasing hostility by the general population towards robots, and she eventually is able to convice her husband to return Robbie to the company. Gloria of course is upset by this and insists on finding her best friend. Many months pass without any change in her despondency.

Her mother plans an extended vacation in New York as a way to take Gloria's mind off the situation, not knowing that her husband has arranged for a chance meeting with Robbie. He convinces her that Gloria thinks of Robbie as a person rather than a mechanical device, and that a.