Asimov wrote 38 short stories and 5 novels in the book series Robot. He was fascinated by the idea of automated machines that could accomplish the same tasks as humans. His avant-garde passion towards the idea of robots and his stories led to a worldwide interest into this then obscure side of technology.
Robot
His Robot series explore at first the development of robotics and the creation of the mythical laws of robotics whose goal is to maintain human control over robots.
The Three Laws
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the 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 Laws
- A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Asimov stated that these laws should remain true for any type of innovative technology.
Earth and the Spacers
In four of his Robot novels set in a distant future after the creation of robots, Asimov details the conflicts between the inhabitants of Earth, who live in crowded, underground cities and fear that robots will replace them, and the Spacers, descendants of settlers who left the Earth and founded an utterly robot-dependent society.
We observe the disgust of Earth humans for robots, who they believe will replace them and cannot consider that robots would have a place in their society. On the other side, the Spacers live in an over-sanitized world and cannot exist without the aid of their robots.
The story follows Elijah Baley, an Earthman and Daneel Olivaw, a humanoid robot, as they try to unify the two radically different cultures and help save Earth from its closeted misery. They strive to create a prosperous society that is not entirely dependent on robotic aid.
Impact
Asimov’s visionary works helped ease in an era of robotics and created an entirely new domain of science and progress. I commend these books for their unprecedented portrayal of robotics.
Creative Bibliolatry 