Book Review

I, Robot is a collection of 9 stories about robots. It was written by Isaac Asimov and first published by Gnome Press in 1950. Nowadays it has millions of fans and is well known in most of countries.

Doctor Susan Calvin tells the stories to a reporter during an interview. All histories are about the interaction of humans and robots. The most important thing is that robots are liable to Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it 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.

First story is an introduction to the world of machines which evolved from silenced robots to intelligent creatures, that can’t be controlled by U.S. Robots. In other stories we can read about robots in many situations, f. ex. as a baby sitter, on the space station or as a politician.

Isaac Asimov shows that robots with artificial intelligence are dangerous for humanity. That is because they think that people can’t take care of themselves. The worst thing is that newest robots can look exactly like humans. People won’t be able to distinguish robots from humans.

In my view I’ Robot is a great collection of stories. Some are funny, others are exhilarating, but all of them are very interesting. I couldn’t stop reading this book until the end. I can recommend it for everyone, even for those, who don’t like reading.

Grzegorz Cieśla