Robot Visions

This was a quick read as only 3 short stories were unique. The bulk of the book had been collected in previous Robot anthologies. The 3 'new' stories were OK, but nothing to get too excited over. The best of them was probably the title story with an interesting look at humanity and time travel.

I was unaware before I purchased the book that there were a collection of essays written by Asimov that were published in various publications mostly in the 1970's and 1980's. These were on the whole very interesting, but there was a large amount of repetition that might only be obvious when they are all collected together and read one after the other. After 5 posts about Robots this blog must seem repetitive too!?

Asimov does delve into the history of 'Robot' so that the reader can understand his influences and motivations and to some extent how he derived at the 3 Laws; for instance the term 'Robot' was first used in 1921 by Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots). He is rightfully proud of the contribution to science through these works and makes repeated reference to the 3 laws and his invention of the work 'Robotics'.

It is not until perhaps you have read this background that you can see that a large amount of popular perception (and fiction) including robots is negative - 'Robot as Enemy' as Asimov would describe.

Asimov on the other hand tried to change that and felt that as Robots were machines then Man - as with all modern machinery - would install safety features to ensure Robots do not cause humans any harm, or to reduce the risk of causing harm.

In the Evitable Conflict, which appears in this collection (as well as I, Robot and The Complete Robot) the possibility of advancements of the Positronic brain (and a pooled resource) are played out on a global scale and some harm does come to some humans for the benefit of the greater good. Asimov is indicating that the Positronic brain or Artificial Intelligence is of great benefit to humanity but it has the potential to grow out of control through increased learning and processing capabilities. Can it ever be fully harnessed? This is a theme that is explored in other stories, some of which I'm fast approaching.

You may be wondering (if there is anybody out there wondering?!) why I am following this particular reading order. Well I use Goodreads as a source of material and to keep track of my Read and To Be Read pile and they had a series link for the Robots.

So I have followed this to the letter so far, but now is where I briefly move away from the path. I have shoehorned in The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories - my next Post - and have left out The Positronic Man. Two reasons why this has been omitted, firstly I have already read the short story from which this extension is based and secondly.... I don't have a copy!