Isaac Asimov was genius,a natural wonder and God gifted writer. His writing career spanned more than forty-five years and produced 477 published books of nearly every type of literature.
Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi in 1920, and moved to Brooklyn with his parents in 1923. He was accepted to Columbia University at the age of 15, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1939. After receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia in 1948, Dr. Asimov worked as an instructor of biochemistry and was promoted to associate professor in 1951. Dr. Asimov was made full professor in 1979. Asimov lived in a Manhattan penthouse apartment with his wife, psychiatrist and writer Janet O. Jeppson Isaac Asimov died of heart and kidney failure on April 6, 1992.
I,
Robot is one of his books which built his reputation. The
book consists of relatively short
stories, robot anthologies, which show us relations between
human beings and
robots from the time when first elementary robots were created until the time when computers basically took over the control of economy, progress, and future of a mankind. In his book robots and characters are taking the stage all by themselves. It’s a collection of nine stories. Throughout his book he describes life of "robopsychologist" Dr. Susan Calvin. Dr.Susan is an expert in robots. At the very end of the book she says:" I saw it from the beginning, when the poor robot couldn’t speak, to the end, when they stand between mankind and destruction. In the book Susan Calvin is trying to analyze behavior and thoughts of robots that designed and created by men, but, at the same time, outperforming their creators in almost every task and role. Very important part of her analyses is The Three
Laws of Robotics:
1.A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.
2.A robot must obey orders given to him by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The three laws of robotics makes logical conjunction of nine stories in I, Robot. Laws are part of the book that many people know even if they have not read I, Robot. The laws were written in early 40s! It shows that Asimov realized the importance of this issue even before it really existed. The rules are natural: a machine may not injure a human being in any way. It is the first and most important law that has been and will be the most important for everyone who somehow relates his or her life with computers, robots or any other type of
machines.
Briefly I want to talk about a few most interesting stories from Asimov’s I,Robot.
Liar! A mind-reading robot was created. Four top researchers of U.S.Robots became the victims of their own creature. The robot knowing the deepest thoughts and pains of the people around wants and tries to do everything he can to make people happy. But he does it by convincing them that their dreams, ambitions and even deeply hidden desires will or have come true. It fails when it convinces Calvin that the man of her dreams really loves her. When that proves untrue, Calvin loses control and attacks the robot bitterly, forcing it to burn out its own brain because the paradox of being forever aware of what would make people happy and unable to provide it.
Evidence A very interesting and dramatic story is about Stephen Byerley who is a lawyer running for a political office. People say that he is a robot. Byerley proves his humanity by striking a human being. Susan Calvin realizes that it could have been a set-up, and that human who was hit could have been another robot, which would prove that Byerley was a robot. There are two very interesting moments. First, when Byerley sets-up the public striking basically simulating the laws of human ethics, and a second one, when Dr. Calvin lets it go because she understands that itwould be better to have a good robot as a political figure than that position would be taken by a worse human being.
The Evitable Conflict In this story the economy of the entire planet is totally controlled by positronic super brains, the Machines. They know what they’re doing, and what they are doing is providing for a better, more wonderful future than humanity could ever manage on its own.
Strengths and Weaknesses Isaac Asimov does not use unknown technological terms; his language is clear and simple. Most of the stories have a lot of action. This book brings up a lot of serious thoughts and difficult questions. I think it is strength. All these issues brought up by Asimov in his book are extremely important right now. We more and more depend on computers and machines. I think we can’t stop depending on computers, and we shouldn’t. We have to carefully follow the concepts of the three laws of robotics written by Isaac Asimov in 1940s, and then we can just pray that our planet of human beings will not become a planet of machines where, in a best case, a human being will be a fish in aquarium which will be owned and controlled by machines
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