asimov suggested starting with i, robot when asked, but he wrote quite a bit after that suggestion, and he left quite a bit out. it's for that reason that i started with the early asimov, instead. now that that's done with, i, robot is the author's suggested starting point, or at least was.
in 1982, asimov published an update to i, robot called the complete robot that was actually comprehensive, in terms of robot stories, at least up until 1982. the sequence in i, robot is not disturbed but several texts are inserted in between the existing sequence. further, the text is split into six thematic sections.
so, the way i'm going to do this is to read a section and then come over to write it up.
the first section is called some non-human robots and has three stories published after the publication of i, robot - two from the 50s and one from the late 70s.
before i do this, i should point out that asimov does remain incredibly relevant, as automation starts to filter out of the factory and into our every day lives. he was perhaps the first person to really address these concerns in a concrete way that is directly applicable to contemporary reality, and the basic crux of the subject matter has changed very little in the last 70-80 years, except to point out that we're just barely catching up to where he imagined we might be, 50 years earlier. so, we're substantively behind his schedule. but, that means he's still relevant, because we haven't truly gotten there yet.
so, as some of these stories could very well have been written last week, i'm going to approach a lot of them as though they were.
while you might not have read all or any of the original versions of these texts, as they developed from asimov's pen, most people sorting through a collection like this will recognize most of these plotlines, via second or third or eighth generation adaptations, either within derivative works of science fiction or via derivative works in a number of related genres, like horror and fantasy.
- a boy's best friend: this is a short, undeveloped piece that really exists strictly to reverse the idea of obsolescence; here, the robot becomes obsolete when the real dog appears, and the kid wants to stick with the robot, instead. it's an empty sort of irony that comes off as sort of trite, in the lack of development. but, there is really a deeper point, here, in relation to asimov's discourse around the use of robots to replace human labour; while i'm going to ultimately agree with asimov about the usefulness of automation, i have to advance the argument that he never fully understood the opposition to robots, and that's what i'm getting here - it's an attempt at irony that exposes the author's longstanding lack of understanding of his opponents. but, i spent some time writing this because it could have been a powerful table-turner, through the three pages it takes up.
- sally: you could either interpret this as a depiction of a future robot revolt or as a commentary on then-contemporary race politics in 1950s america. in the end, the bad guy gets run down by a pack of cars acting somewhat like a pack of killer whales. these robots engage with primitive human concepts like friendship and revenge; this is sort of an outlier, in terms of how asimov tends to deal with what robots are. it's not bad as a story, though. derivatives include christine by stephen king.
- someday: what i find interesting about this is the idea that we might one day have handheld computing devices that talk to us, leading to a decline in literacy rates amongst the younger generation, who are desperate to get around the parental locks on the devices. this was written in 1956. this robot is unusual in an asimovian sense, in that it seems to be able to understand human speech beyond it's programming, a common idea in science fiction, but one which is impossible, and which asimov would, usually, be the first to (refreshingly) write off as nonsense. you don't expect that kind of silliness from asimov. but, asimov uses that unusual ability to allow for the robot to recognize that it's not being respected, and you can again choose to interpret that as futuristic or contemporaneous, in whatever way you'd prefer. someday, indeed.
