Book Review: I, Robot

by: Isaac Asimov

I’ve been on a book/movie kick recently: Shoeless Joe, The Help and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist were 3 of the last 4 books I read. With the exception of The Help these have all been instances where I saw the movie first and enjoyed them enough to be interested in reading the source material. Shoeless Joe and Nick & Norah were pretty similar to their respective plots but I, Robot has nothing to do with the Will Smith movie.

If you remember when Marty went back to 1955 in Back to the Future then you know that the Science Fiction genre was just taking off. Asimov was at the heart of that. He published I, Robot in 1950 as a collection of 9 short stories that all tie together. None of the stories are similar to Will Smith’s plight but the film absolutely takes ideas from each tale. It’s amazing to consider that Asimov could even conjure up such an impressive and outstanding future during a period when most people didn’t even own a TV set.

In the book, he talks about every family owning a robot, robots working on different planets, the existence of space stations and even interstellar travel. Again, this was 1950. Sputnik wouldn’t even circle the globe until 1957 and NASA wouldn’t even exist (in its current form) until 1958! You have to chalk it up to more than just imagination; the man almost hit a bullseye.

Robots are essential in the 21st century but primarily for industrial purposes. Humanoid robots are more or less non-existent likely because of the uncanny valley -- (Did I do actual research for this blog post?) -- and likely because Rosie from the Jetsons was so annoying. Still, to read a piece of fiction from 1950 and find that it leans closer to non-fiction in 2012 is incredibly impressive.