None of the robots are considered people, by the characters or the narrative, so the stories have little interest in investigating what it means to be a human, except in contrast to what it means to be a robot.

Calvin distinguishes herself mostly by being grumpy and taciturn, though that comes with some unfortunate implications that she is unhappy because she is “plain” looking and can’t get a date. Two recurring characters, Powell and Donovan, are played for workplace comedy, but they are virtually indistinguishable from one another and fairly bland. Calvin being the only person to really stand out. Characterization takes a backseat, with Dr. Most of the stories read like logic problems, where the interactions between the Three Laws cause strange occurrences to take place and human scientists have to sort out why it happened and how to fix the problem.

Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

All robots are programmed with the unbreakable “Three Laws of Robotics”:

In the year 2064, she looks back at her decades of work with robots, and recounts notable occasions when robots were particularly odd or troublesome. The collection I, Robot unites nine short stories with the framing device of an interview with the world’s leading robopsychologist, Dr. Reading I, Robot in a week when the film M3GAN, a horror movie about a sentient robot doll, is in theaters, gives a real sense of the scope of conversations around artificial intelligences, and how these conversations have grown and evolved past much of Asmimov’s work. But he was also one of the first writers to extensively explore artificial intelligences and sentient robots in his work, so while he was breaking new ground, later authors could build on his foundations to dig deeper into conversations about personhood, autonomy, and how technology interacts with humanity. Isaac Asimov is a titan of science-fiction, and his work has had a lasting impact on the genre to this day. It can be a strange experience, reading formative classics. A collection of short stories: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

I robot short stories