i, Robot - a book review

-

 i, Robot (autocorrected a lot of times to I, Robot despite the i being correct) is a book of short stories about robots and the three laws of robotics. It inspired the movie with Will Smith and is also a series of four books. Let's talk about it. 



These short stories are in timeline order, have reoccurring characters, and are all easy sci-fi reads. My Mom is not too into sci-fi and she loved this one. I read this in a week, if you take out the time of working and doing other stuff in between. It was compelling, not intimidating. 

Seeing that this is a series of short stories, I'm putting the short stories in their own sections. Each story has unique themes. I need to honor that. From this point on, I'll explore the themes and plot in each section, titled with the short story. I'll put the reviews in timeline order. 

Robbie

This one shows off a delightful scene of a little girl playing with her robot nurse maid, Robbie, an early model sold to the public. After this, the mother complains that she doesn't want her child raised by a robot, despite buying him two years ago and admitting that it did take a load off her shoulders. The basic gist is that they take the robot, replace it with a puppy (after the husband finally gave in to his wife and sent Robbie back), and leave their daughter in a state of depression. She'd attached so hard to the robot (8 years old) that she didn't think of him as a robot and didn't play with other kids. The puppy was no help, sent back to the person they'd bought it from by the end of the story. The family go to New York and the little girl spends that time looking for the "lost" robot, Robbie. Eventually they do just give her back Robbie. 

I'll say one thing about the movie Megan here because it feels relevant. The child has a tantram when they return Robbie to the factory (telling her he's lost), much like the child in the horror movie Megan does. It points to how much kids attach to those that spend time and care for them, making it a horrible mistake to take Robbie from her - as the story suggests a depression when they do. She wasn't even interacting with her peers, which really is dangerous. This story plays with the idea of robot nannies. It points out that it take a load off parents, while also making kids more attached to machines and not humans. Should children be raised by robots? Should children be raised by technology? It's a real ethical question. 

Runaround

This begins our introduction to two reoccurring characters, Powell and Donovan. They test and troubleshoot robots before they get sent out, as well as supervising robotic work. They have multiple stories in this book - three in a row and one at the end. This one starts at a mining operation off-planet. Speedy, the robot that's supposed to get them a substance they can't touch, is going in circles in the environment due to two laws of robotics conflicting. They are forced to use old models from the previous years to go get Speedy, but they have limited time to do so before things get dire. They are on Mercury. 

Speedy is acting strange. He seems drunk, but he's not. He's trying to play games like a child. The two laws conflicting are this: self-preservation (law three) and following orders (law two). He found a dangerous area to be in, thus he is going in circles. Powell (always calm) and Donovan (always hot-headed) don't have time to play games. They use rule one (a robot can't harm a human or let them come to harm through inaction) to make him save one of them. It works, allowing them to live another day and figure out how to get their resource. 

Reason

This is Powell and Donovan again, this time arguing with QT1 (Cutie) at a space station, arguing that they built Cutie. Cutie doesn't believe them at all. The goal is to make the space station robot-run, with humans only coming to repair the robots. Cutie was the first model they taught to run the converter. They were trying to make it so that humans need not come up here at all. Cutie argues that they didn't make him, says that he's supposed to replace humanity, and is convinced the converter (a machine) is the master. Donovan goes down to make sure the robots are working, to find Cutie has convinced the lower robot workers that the converter is the master and Cutie is his profit. Donovan gets angry, spits on the converter to prove it isn't master, and gets angrily thrown out. The other scientist Powell is torn from his office chair and put under robot guard with Donovan. 

Cutie then says that despite their lack of purpose and inferiority, he will care for them like pets as long as they live here. A storm of some kind is coming, though, and they can't adjust the laser going to Earth while locked in a room. They prepare their minds for the worst and find out Cutie adjusted the laser in their stead. The first law saved them (can't harm humans - first law). Later, they get relieved of their supervisor duties and a relief man comes up to send them back. They don't say anything about the "cult" that the robots developed and leave the relief man to find out for himself. They succeeded, the robot can run it all, but it's a weird success because the robot's beliefs are so off. The relief man will find out all this with no warning. 

Catch That Rabbit

This story is about Powell and Donovan troubleshooting a robot that runs other robots in the mines. Whenever they were around to watch everything was perfect. When they weren't there to watch stuff went wrong. The robot grouping would  military march, dance, or just go wacky. Eventually the two noticed a pattern - an emergency like a cave in would throw off the head robot, leading to some overload that it couldn't handle. 

Powell and Donovan got stuck in the mine tunnels in the process of figuring this out. One of them actually destroyed one of the "fingers" (lower robots) to get help. This caused the group to stop dancing like maniacs and respond again. It turns out their presence also disarmed this overload. Dave the head robot could not control six robots at a time. After they shot one of them, Dave returned to normal. These two men figured it out and got dug out of the cave in that they had tried to cause near the robots. 

This one was least memorable to me, but it was good. These two don't fail to entertain me. 

Liar

This one is interesting to say the least. Dr. Calvin and her colleagues have a mind-reading robot and need to find out what happened in manufacturing that caused it - before they destroy the robot itself. The robot Herbie talks to all of them differently. They discovered it could do this when someone conversed with it mentally while traveling down a set of stairs. After a while, it told Dr. Calvin her one colleague loved her (she liked that person) and the other that the head man was retiring, that Bogert (the man talking to Herbie) was the new director upcoming. Both were lies, but when the confronted Herbie all together (after Dr. Calvin came down first and the two men joined her) it couldn't answer for it. 

The first law of not harming humans is in this robot, Herbie. What this means is he can't say anything to hurt feelings or hurt pride. They ask him if he knows what went wrong and Herbie can't answer because the two men would have their egos hurt. The robot is in a position where anything he says will hurt others. Out of anger, Dr. Calvin shouts the logic loop that Herbie is stuck in toward Herbie repeatedly. It begs her to stop, then eventually lets out a horrible scream on the floor. She drove it insane. At the end, she shouts one word at it  - "liar". Herbie couldn't hurt anyone verbally, so it told everyone what they wanted to hear, somewhat like AI does today. 

Little Lost Robot

This story is about finding one robot, Nestor 10, among 63 robots. Nestor robots have an amended first law, because work men do have to be in dangerous places without robots dragging them away from their work zones. One worker got upset at Nestor 10, cussed him out, and told him to "get lost". Getting lost was taken as an order. The direct result was that everyone got called in to help find Nestor 10 amongst 63 robots. Their last resort was destroying them all. 

After robot interviews, several tests, and many tries they did find Nestor 10. The last thing that worked was something put in the movie directly. That scene where all the robots held still and only one moved? That's the scene where they found Nestor 10. Once they did, they had to destroy him. It took several tries to get here. 

Also, Nestor 10 convinced the other robots of the logic that if you'll die trying to save someone who will die anyone, it isn't worth it. That is where you get the logic in the opening scene of the movie (which is not in these short stories, but does follow this logic). 

Escape!

This is a story with all the reoccuring characters in it. The rival robotics company tried to feed data to their main brain system, data on interstellar travel, and it broke their brain. US Robot and Mechanical Men Corp. now has the job of testing it again. They feed it to their more advanced system, it spit out a ship design, and then robots built it. Powell and Donovan inspected it to find no storage, bathroom, or manual controls. When they try to get off, it has sealed them in and taken off. The brain is controlling it all. It opens a wall and a bathroom for them after takeoff. They have beans and milk to eat, no shower, a bathroom to use, and no way to call for help. The brain can send the ship messages, but the two men cannot send any response back. 

This was a prank from a system that developed a sense of humor. The brain knew they would die for a brief minute and pop back into existence during the interstellar travel. One scientist heard bizarre things from Hell and the other heard a fire and brimstone sermon during that brief minute. It brought them back and the scientists had to decide what to do. After some fun discussion, they decided to send it back as-is before they adjusted it. They'd let the brain take their competitors for a wild prank ride. 

Evidence

A politician thinks another politician is really a robot. He calls the head of US Robots to ask for help proving it. He says the man doesn't eat or sleep (not entirely true). They go through some tests, some political nonsense brews as a result, and the politician punches someone. He proved he could break the first law, so people were satisfied he wasn't a robot. He won the election. 

Dr. Calvin actually thinks he was one, partially because his old teacher is probably the real man. The man in question had a car accident that left him with physical disabilities, which could be solved if he put his mind into a positronic brain (if I understood correctly). He didn't really say yes or no to Dr. Calvin's theories and the wording of his death said "chose to die". Dr. Calvin kept his secret, if he was a robot. 

The Inevitable Conflict

This one is a little bit odd. It features the alleged robot in a higher director position, in charge of regions. He's asking an older Dr. Calvin what she thinks of the current world's problems. I don't know how to describe this one. Read this one yourself and you'll understand why. Mr. Byerley, the man from the previous story, goes on to detail all the issues in the regions. It's a lot of issues, but a lot of good stuff, too.

After a while, Dr. Calvin comes to the conclusion that humanity is being run by technology, not the other way around. The somewhat terrifying idea is simple. "Only the Machines, from now on, are inevitable!" It's kind of scary when you think about it, but that isn't wrong. It makes me think about how lost we are without our devices. 


Overall Themes

All these stories have much in common. First, we have the three laws in play, second we have the emotions in the robots, and third we have technology in society. While these stories don't represent the 2020s like we really live them, they touch on a lot. We have technology running us (think about your devices and it makes sense), technology saying what we want to hear (algorithms on social media), technology raising our kids (devices), and dependence on technology. It's all there. Devices are inevitable. 

**********************************************************************************



 
Morrow is released! This novella is the story of two women writing a family history for the Morrow family. They find a nasty secret while researching. Will they survive their internship? 

Sign up for my newsletter at this link to get a free first chapter when it comes out, or if you want an email the day it releases. All you need to plug in is your email. You'll also get a free first chapter of Wrenville, my first novel. 











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Character Study: Brave

-
Image
The characters in the movie Brave  are well written and change throughout the movie. While it is easy to say Merida was all in the wrong or Queen Elinor was all in the wrong that is not what the actual movie was about, to begin with. Here is a character study that will give you a deeper understanding of Merida and Queen Elinor. Our starting point is explaining the plot. If you've watched this movie you know the plot, but I'm banking on the fact some of you haven't. Put simply and in a few words, Merida and Queen Elinor have a disagreement over Merida getting married to the winner of the archery contest (which Merida secretly entered herself and won her own hand). There are some hurtful words on both ends, Merida runs into a witch, and it all leads to Queen Elinor turning into a bear unless they "mend the bond torn by pride", which takes both mother and daughter to do. There is more detail, but I'm not here to analyze the whole plot, just two characters. Merida...
Read more

Nancy Drew's Love Interests

-
Image
Nancy Drew has several TV shows, book series, and games under her belt. Did you know that different series have different love interests? Some promote the "Francy" relationship, while others only show Ned. There is even one book series where she dates multiple men. Let's dive in! For those of you who don't know your Nancy Drew basics, here's a basic overview. Ned Nickerson and Nancy Drew have been together in the books since the beginning. Frank Hardy has had a crush on Nancy throughout the Supermysteries, and this idea is known as "Francy". These two ideas have come up over and over again throughout Nancy's history. Ned Nickerson Ted Nickerson and Nancy  Starting from the original books, we have Ned Nickerson, or as the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movies call him, Ted Nickerson. He is established as only a close, consistent friend in the original books, but later in the series becomes jealous of the young men around her. With the...
Read more

Laurel and Hardy - a brief history

-
Image
 Laurel and Hardy are a pair of comedians I grew up watching, despite the fact they were popular in the 1930s. My dad loves their work and that era of film. Today let's look at their history. You might learn something new. I know I did. Courtesy of Fanpop Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy didn't start out working together. Stan was more of a writer than an actor and Oliver was working as primarily an actor.  Stan Laurel (Stan Jefferson) was the understudy to Charlie Chaplin in 1910. While working in Vaudeville he changed his last name to Laurel. He found success in 1920 while doing comedy, then went more into writing and directing. Hal Roach Studios signed him in 1925 and he was supposed to be more behind the camera than in front.  Oliver Hardy (Norvell Hardy) took the name Oliver in tribute to his late father. He managed a movie theatre in 1913 and said "why not" to acting. He was in 200 short films for various studios. Hal Roach signed him in 1926.  They began working t...
Read more