The Bottom Line

Issue date: 9/27/06 Section: The Voltage Gate

Media Credit: Heather Ravenscroft

I have been a huge fan of Isaac Asimov's work since I was a teenager. For those who don't know who I'm talking about, Asimov was a biochemist and a prolific author who started his career writing for his school newspaper (the man wrote professionally on just about everything starting in the 1940's, from the Bible and politics to science and science fiction, over 400 books in his lifetime). He is considered one of the great popularizers of science and one of the most legendary science fiction writers.

Asimov is almost single-handedly responsible for all of the science fiction that we read in books and watch in the movie theaters, especially the works of fiction dealing with robots. I, Robot was the first of these books, exploring a world where man constructed robots that abided by three basic rules of functioning, the Three Laws of Robotics:

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

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

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

Asimov fleshed out this future world and crafted stories that dealt with the ins and outs of these laws, which sometimes meant the logical circumvention of them.

At this point, you're probably wondering what exactly this has to do with the myth of the mad scientist.

Two years ago, Twentieth Century Fox released a film "based loosely" on Asimov's I, Robot. If by based loosely they meant only the name of the film and the book is identical, I suppose that fits.

The novel I, Robot had a purpose; one much deeper than might be comprehended at first glance. It was written after Asimov-a sci-fi reader as much as writer-had grown tired of the mad Dr. Frankenstein stories that had become fashionable after the scientific horrors of World War I. Human plays God, God punishes human. Human creations turn on creator, usually in the form of robots this time around. Asimov believed in a world where man had the power to control technology utterly, without any divine power struggle or demon contracts (modernism). I, Robot the novel was the creative construction of this world.

"Never, never was one of my robots to turn stupidly on his creator," says Asimov in a foreword to Eight Stories from the Rest of the Robots. "My robots were machines designed by engineers, not pseudo-men created by blasphemers."

Continued...

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