I Robot

Before robots became chiefly associated with stealing people’s jobs, writing suspiciously fluent emails and refusing to recognise the edge of a staircase, Isaac Asimov gave them a more dignified occupation: confronting intricate moral dilemmas while humans stood nearby becoming increasingly confused.

I, Robot is Asimov’s celebrated collection of linked stories tracing the development of robots from comparatively simple domestic assistants to extraordinarily sophisticated artificial intelligences. The stories are framed through the recollections of robopsychologist Dr Susan Calvin, a woman who understands machines considerably better than she understands—or particularly enjoys—people. Considering the people she encounters, this may be evidence of sound professional judgement rather than emotional deficiency.

At the centre of the book are Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics, designed to ensure that robots cannot harm humanity. Naturally, the laws immediately produce complications, paradoxes and alarming misunderstandings, because no system of rules survives prolonged contact with reality, especially when invented by people who assume they have thought of everything. Robots disappear, behave irrationally, develop unusual beliefs and obey instructions with the dangerous precision familiar to anyone who has ever filled in an online form incorrectly.

These are not simply mechanical adventure stories. Asimov uses his robots to explore logic, responsibility, prejudice, free will and the uncomfortable possibility that perfectly rational machines might eventually prove better at managing civilisation than their creators. The robots are frequently accused of malfunctioning when they are actually following human instructions exactly—which remains one of the more persuasive predictions made by twentieth-century science fiction.

Published by Panther in 1974, this edition contains one of the foundational works of modern robot fiction: brisk, clever and still capable of making contemporary technology look like a rather noisy preliminary experiment. It is ideal for established Asimov readers, collectors of classic science fiction or anyone wishing to understand why nearly every subsequent fictional robot arrives carrying several pages of ethical terms and conditions.

This copy is in Good condition. It has survived its years without overthrowing civilisation, concealing itself among humanity or demanding recognition as a sentient being, although purchasers are advised to treat it respectfully just in case. Sold by Crappy Old Books, where all stock is operated in accordance with the Three Laws: a book may not harm a customer, must obey a customer’s order, and must preserve its own dust jacket wherever this does not conflict with the first two laws.

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