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A review by worldofjoel
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
2.0
I was fortunate that when I sat down to read Isaac Asimov's I, Robot I was warned that it has almost nothing in common with the movie which came out almost a decade ago. Instead, I, Robot is a series of short stories about the rise of robots in our world. The first thing that struck me was how prescient I, Robot is now 70 years after the books initial release. It feels like it could have been written in 2017.
Really if I was to boil down I, Robot to its most basic form is that it has a set of rules in which all robots must abide by. "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law." And the entire novel is a string of short stories that test, twist, and push the boundaries of these rules in interesting ways.
I, Robot almost reads like a philosophy lesson on artificial intelligence. And at first, I was eating it all up. The first story, titled Robby was one of my favorites. It's about a robot early on that couldn't talk and be made to just be a young child's friend. It was such a simple and profound tale that was easy to follow. But as the stories and the timeline progress the book becomes harder and harder to follow and by the end of I, Robot I felt like I just got out of a whirlwind of a lecture and I'll need a lot of time to try and wrap my head around it all.
Much of I, Robot is using interesting story beats to test the three rules of robotics and to challenge the reader about whether or not these rules are sufficient. By the end I was done, I had little to no interest in what was happening, and the plot device had worn thin. It wasn't a bad novel, but it definitely wasn't a novel that I "enjoyed".
Really if I was to boil down I, Robot to its most basic form is that it has a set of rules in which all robots must abide by. "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law." And the entire novel is a string of short stories that test, twist, and push the boundaries of these rules in interesting ways.
I, Robot almost reads like a philosophy lesson on artificial intelligence. And at first, I was eating it all up. The first story, titled Robby was one of my favorites. It's about a robot early on that couldn't talk and be made to just be a young child's friend. It was such a simple and profound tale that was easy to follow. But as the stories and the timeline progress the book becomes harder and harder to follow and by the end of I, Robot I felt like I just got out of a whirlwind of a lecture and I'll need a lot of time to try and wrap my head around it all.
Much of I, Robot is using interesting story beats to test the three rules of robotics and to challenge the reader about whether or not these rules are sufficient. By the end I was done, I had little to no interest in what was happening, and the plot device had worn thin. It wasn't a bad novel, but it definitely wasn't a novel that I "enjoyed".