I, Robot

Format read: Paperback
Reading time: 5-7h
Tags: philosophical, science fiction, speculative, robotics, artificial intelligence
Own a copy: yes
Reread likelihood: 10/10

Summary & Review
Told from the perspective of Dr. Susan Calvin, I, Robot is a collection of short stories that covers several decades of robotic research and implementation. Here's a short breakdown of each story:

1. Robbie (5★)
The first story in the book is that of Robbie, a first gen robot model that cannot speak and whose primary task is taking care of children. Robbie and his charge, Gloria, make a great pair as they play games together and spend all their time in each other's company. One day, Gloria's mother decides that the robot has to go because Gloria is not socializing with other children, preferring instead to spend her days with Robbie. Robbie is sent back to U.S. Robotics to be decommissioned and turned into a line worker at the factory. Gloria goes through great pains to be reunited with her friend and shows that robots are more than just mindless machines.

2. Runaround (4★)
In this story, we are introduced to recurring characters, Mike Donavan and Greg Powell, two field engineers. In Runaround, Mike and Greg are sent on a mission to Mercury to collect selenium samples with the help of a single robot, Speedy. Left to fend for themselves, Mike and Greg soon realize that Speedy is acting strange and, if he isn't fixed soon, the two humans will die on a planet far from home. This story introduces the Three Laws of Robotics by showing how Speedy is stuck in a feedback loop between the Second Law (obedience) and the Third Law (self-preservation).

3. Reason (5★)
Mike and Greg are sent to work on a space station to work on a sun beam director that sends heat and light to the Earth. While at the station, the pair assemble a new model robot, QT-1 (“Cutie”) to take over the manual duties of controlling the beam. However, Cutie is a model with a much higher form of intellect, and it soon decides for itself that the two human engineers couldn't have possibly built it. Cutie begins to worship the Beam Director itself, thinking it a god-like being, and ignores the humans entirely, thereby breaking the Three Laws. When Cutie locks up the humans and takes over the commands at the station, Mike and Greg hope against all odds that the First Law at least will hold and that Cutie will protect Earth against a dangerous solar storm.

4. Catch That Rabbit (3★)
Mike and Greg work on yet another impossible mission, this time with DV-5 (“Dave”), a robot built to mine asteroids. Dave begins to malfunction while out on the asteroid, and all the other robots who follow it begin to display the same errors. Soon, Dave and its minions start a military-like march and fail to obey Mike and Greg until the two put themselves into mortal danger and Dave has no choice but to save them.

5. Liar! (4★)
Dr Susan Calvin stars in this story as a young robopsychologist working with a team of mathematicians on a robot, RB-34 (“Herbie”), who can read minds. Herbie somehow developed an anomaly that allows it to know exactly what the humans are thinking and to answer their questions before they're asked. Dr Calvin questions Herbie about its ability, but Herbie instead plays matchmaker between Calvin and one of the mathematicians, Milton Ashe. Things turn sour when Calvin realises that Herbie has been lying to everyone to protect their feelings as per the First Law (cause no harm to humans). Angry, Calvin sets about destroying the robot with all the cruelty that only humans can muster.

6. Little Lost Robot (5★)
This story is the inspiration behind the I, Robot movie. In this tale, Dr Calvin is sent to a Hyper Base in space where the military is testing hyperspace travel with the help of sophisticated robots. Calvin finds out that these robots, model NS-2, have been modified so that the imperative of the First Law is lessened. One of the modified robots has gone ‘missing' by hiding itself in a crowd of unmodified robots, and Calvin is tasked with finding out which of the 63 robots is the dangerous, disobedient one.

7. Escape! (5★)
Dr Calvin works with the mathematicians from Liar! to develop a super-brain, bodiless robot that can calculate impossible mathematics and discover how to travel in hyperspace. The Brain builds a spaceship capable of doing this and, when Mike and Greg are sent onboard to verify the equipment, they find themselves locked in the vessel and sent into outer space by The Brain. Even though The Brain cannot break the First Law, it can bend it a little bit to allow for hyperspace travel, which translates into Mike and Greg dying briefly during ‘the jump' to and back from deep space.

The Evitable Conflict (5★)
The world has come the point where highly sophisticated and efficient robots, now known as The Machines, run all forms of production worldwide. Humans have become all but redundant in this automated society, and many nations and individual groups of people oppose the widespread use of The Machines around the world. However, as Dr Calvin uncovers, The Machines are now in complete control of humanity and, for the sake of its well-being, the Third Law (self-preservation) comes to precede over the First Law (human safety) for the sake of the First Law. The Machines are therefore declared as masters who “stand between mankind and destruction” (224), and humanity has to accept the fact that it is no longer in charge of the world.


I, Robot is a fantastic early entry in the world of robotics, and its Three Laws are used to this day, perhaps surprisingly, in real science. The novel's individual stories show the progression of robotics, from mute nursemaids to all-powerful Machines that can no longer be dismantled. Sadly, humanity has placed itself in a box with no exit. By trying to progress technologically, it has caused its own loss of independence to the machines it has created. The short stories of Robbie and Liar! are just plain heartbreaking, while Reason and The Evitable Conflict are terrifying looks at when things go wrong and robots take over the world. Asimov created an interesting-if-worrying scenario that seems all-too eerie in the 21st century as we push to develop more and more intelligent systems that can automize our lives and take work away from humans.

This is a must read for all hard SFF lovers!