I, Robot

This is a very important and mostly entertaining book.

I, Robot is a group of interlinked short stories in chronological and technological order as time moves on, starting off with basic clunky robots, followed by space travel, and ultimately a mechanized future controlled and dominated by machines.

It’s easy reading at first that gets progressively more complicated as the moral and philosophical elements kick in, with sometimes archaic and humorous expressions like ‘by jove’, ‘jumping Jupiter’, and ‘sizzling Saturn’ feeling oddly modern and old-fashioned at the same time.

The book discusses and redresses the three laws of robotics and their fundamental details such as: do not kill human beings, and the potential conflict with the third law of robotics, self-preservation.

Futuristic wars with robots might seem inevitable, whereas Isaac Asimov's vision, surprisingly, is one of benevolence and peace.

Another surprising element is Asimov’s pro-feminism standpoint, with one of the main characters, robopsychologist, Susan Calvin a force to be reckoned with instead of being a weaker, vulnerable female from the 1950s.

It's amazing how much he got right and how the world would start to balance out, while also presuming mechanical robots would be standard issue by the 21st century, whereas 75 years later we still don't have basic machines to fold clothes, nor do we have interstellar space drives or robot governors.

In 1950 he understood the importance of solar energy as a major source of power, but had no firm grasp on information technology and envisaged robots consuming large paper volumes instead of transferring digital copies - they don't need to absorb information the way we do.

Asimov really understands how human sentiments work - if we love a dog because it loves us, we can equally love a robot because we trust it and, over time, if beneficial to us, why not let robots make basic decisions and rule? On the condition of robot laws being cemented in place, no harm must come to us, with irrevocable trust. It's man, power and egos who destroy the world, not the machines, again emphasizing how far we need to advance to realize the Asimov dream.

We're still flying drones across borders and into tower blocks because they're controlled by humans! Once the drones have brains and standardized anti-hurt programming, they shouldn't be harmful anymore?

And that's Asimov's strength, a future dominated by technology, but a positive and better one mostly living in peace.

There's a 50-ft tree near to where I live that perpetually drops red orchid-like flowers, but in a clearing a few yards on, dumped trash, emphasizing the real problem facing us - ourselves, not nature, nor technology, and maybe robots that clear the garbage, fix our roads and provide basic sanitation and education services will benefit us?

It’s reassuring to think that maybe by piling our efforts into technology we won’t need to come up with all the philosophical answers or the meaning to life, nor what’s in the stars - perhaps robots and AI can do that for us?

This book is pro technology, pro future, and pro a better and more peaceful world.