I, Robot
If you are reading I, Robot, post your comments below. Remember to post a comment after you read each third of your book. Each comment should include the book's title, the portion of the book you read, and at least 10 response sentences. (Take a look at the list of Response Starters on this blog.) Your responses should show that you are reading and thinking about your book. When you finish the book, do a Final response. (Refer to your handout or the copy posted on the class web page.)
posted by T Sale at
2:11 PM
13 Comments:
I am reading the novel I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov, and have finished the first three of nine short stories, therefore I am finished with the first third.
The book is divided into nine short stories, each about a different robot, and problems with the creation of intelligent beings.
In the first story, I wondered why the mother hated the robot Robbie so much, and did all in her power to get rid of him. It was obvious she hated him, but she also seemed to fear him, and for the safety of her daughter. I noticed, however, that though there was somewhat of a threat, it seemed to me that both Robbie and the girl were very close, it would have taken a lot for the robot to turn violent towards her. An idea I found interesting was that Robbie, being an earlier model, could not speak, and he was built in the early 1990's.
In the second story, a robot malfuntions on the planet Mercury, where humans have several mines for selenium. I was confused by the explanations they considered as to how and why the robot had malfunctioned. However, I really liked what the explanation was, because it made sense and showed a flaw in the laws of robotics. The robot had gotten confused because it was the third law to protect itself, but the second law was to obey humans, however, it had been designed with a strengthened third law and became confused when given orders that may have resulted in its own destruction. I realized that this seemed to be a logical explanation, and most likely could happen in real life.
In the third story, a robot is created on a space station that it believes is the only thing to exist, and nothing exists outside of it. An idea I found really interesting was the idea of reason, the title of the story, the robot had reasoned that since it had never seen or been outside of the space station, that logically nothing must be outside. I really liked this, because it seemed very logical that would happen, a reasoning robot would reason as to its existence and would not always get the reason correct. I also really liked that the robot believed that it was superior to humans, and that was his reason for not having been created by humans. I noticed that the robot was very set in his beliefs, as were the humans, and both got very frustrated with the other when they would not believe them.
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Kyle G, at Tue Nov 28, 03:16:00 PM 2006
I have now read the second set of three short stories in the book I, Robot.
In the first story a robot that commands other, lesser robots, has a problem as he begins to command weird dancing for the lesser robots for no particular reason. The units, with the command robot and then the lesser robots he commands works sort of like a hand, so the lesser robots are known as "fingers." I was confused as to how the robot unit worked, I knew that it was somewhat like a hand, yet the "fingers" were somewhat independent, Mike and Gregg even interview one of them to find out whats going on. Poor Dave (the lead robot), I felt sorry for him because all robots hate when they can not complete a task for humans, and he had no idea or memory of ever commanding the dancing that he did, so he could not explain what was happening. An idea I found interesting was that Dave had too much to focus on, the reason he was giving the dancing command was because his system could not give commands and control six different "fingers" all at once.
In the second story a problem occurs in one of the robots, the first and last robot is created that can read minds. I wondered just how humans could develop a technology that could tap into the human mind and brain waves. I was right about what the robot was doing, as it began telling people things that made them feel good, all of which were lies; he was telling people what they wanted to hear, though they were incorrect. An idea I found interesting was the fact that the reason Herbie (the robot) was lying was because of the First Law of robotics, that a robot may not harm a human, or let a human come to harm; he was lying to people to avoid harming them mentally.
In the last story, a robot that is being used to build a new hyperatomic motor for interstellar travel, goes missing. What is most frightening, his First Law has been modified, he is allowed to let humans come to harm, which other robots cannot do. I really liked that they showed the problem with having a robot with such a restrictive yet broad First Law (the robots were saving people when the humans were trying to do their job in an unsafe environment), because it shows the problems with such a strict and yet broad First Law. I realized that the robot was getting smarter, because it kept evaiding the humans tricks they attempted to re-capture it. An idea I found interesting was that the robot, Nestor, had gained a superiority complex, and began to believe that all robots were superior to humans, and was willing to prove it violently if necessary. I predict that the stories will begin to look more like this one, with robots getting smarter, and become violent against humans, whether because of the First Law, or in spite of it.
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Kyle G, at Thu Nov 30, 08:43:00 PM 2006
I have read the last three stories of I, Robot, and I really liked this novel.
In the seventh story, United States Robots is given a problem by their rivals, Consolidated; a problem which destroyed Consolidated's super computer. An idea I found interesting was that positronic brains, the brains used for United States Robots, were built modeled after humans; they had emotions much in the same way humans did, though the brains operated differently, and could lose control if given too much stress, like humans. I wondered if The Brain (the robot, who happened to be a super computer) would lose control, and how he would lose control, whether or not he would be dangerous or not. I was confused as to how the ship was built, and how it appeared to have no engines, and how it worked when it did work, and what exactly happened to Donovan and Powell when the ship took off. I really liked the idea of The Brain learning that it could harm the humans, if only temporarily, it had found a way around the First Law of robotics, after basically being instructed to do so.
In the second story, a man, Stephen Byerly, is running for mayor of a city on Earth, and is suspected of being a robot. I really liked how clever Byerly seemed to be, often dodging ways that people, primarily his opposing candidate, attempted to reveal him to be a robot. Poor Dr. Lanning, I felt sorry for him because he had several suspicions that Byerly was a robot too, and he wanted to save his company, but could not find definite proof that Byerly was not a robot. An idea I found interesting was that robots aren't allowed to hit other humans, so if Byerly was to strike someone, there was no way he could be a human; but when he does, Susan Calvin pointed out that a robot could not harm a human, but he could harm a robot that looked human.
In the last story, Stephen Byerly is now the World Co-ordinator and is facing problems as the industries of the world are beginning to become less efficient, something thought to be impossible because they are run by the Machines. I noticed that all of the Machines were under production, there were four "Regions" of the world, each with their own Machine, and yet all were running behind in some sort of development, and the world was facing problems it hadn't in several years. I wondered what had caused these machines to act in such a way, a way that obviously was harmful to humans, against the First Law; I at first thought that maybe it was human error, but the more I read, the more I became convinced that the Machines were acting on their own. I really liked Susan Calvin's idea that the Machines were doing not what was good for humans immediately, but they looked to the future and did what was best for the humans in the long run; in a way, humans had given in to the will of the Machines, which had begun to rule their lives.
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Kyle G, at Fri Dec 01, 11:54:00 PM 2006
Kyle --
Your novel blogs for I, Robot are great! You addressed specific details in the stories, and you expressed your ideas and discoveries quite well. Your comments give an excellent overview of the ideas in the book. If you enjoyed this collection, someday you might like to read some of Asimov's other robot novels, such as The Caves of Steel nd The Naked Sun (on which the film for our final is based). Remember to do a fional blog comment about your overall thoughts on the book.
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T Sale, at Sun Dec 03, 11:42:00 AM 2006
Mike --
Your first two novel blogs both show a pretty good understanding of the book. You did a good job explaining your opinion of the stories. In your 3rd comment, perhaps you could deal more with what you thought of the ideas in the stories. Also, remember to do the final comment about your overall throughts on the novel.
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T Sale, at Sun Dec 03, 11:46:00 AM 2006
Mike --
You made some strong observations in your 3rd comment, tuning in to some interesting features of the stories. Your final blog was good, except that you didn't discuss the SF concepts that were important in this book.
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T Sale, at Tue Dec 05, 08:43:00 PM 2006
Steven --
You addressed some good details of the stories, especially in your first two comments. I liked your remark about the "urgency" in "Runaround." I look forward to your nest blogs.
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T Sale, at Tue Dec 05, 08:45:00 PM 2006
After finishing I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov, I have an overall good opinion about it, and may read other books by this author. The science fiction concept most prominent in the book is definately extrapolation, Asimov seems to be predicting the future of computers and robotics in the human world. However, there also seems to be some xenophobia, as humans and robots sometimes find it difficult living with one another. I ultimately liked I, Robot, it was a very good book, with great extrapolations. I think I especially liked it because I would have made the same predictions as Asimov. I didn't like some of the stories, particularly the last two, I don't know why but they didn't have the same effect on me as did the others. I would recommend this book to friends, it is a good novel that is easy to read, as well as quick, but it is also a good example of things that I think could really happen. I think anybody who likes science fiction would like this book, particularly if they liked robotics and computers in science fiction, which is probably my favorite sci-fi theme. I really liked this book, with the exception of some of the stories, but Asimov is a good writer, and I will probably read another of his books. I am, overall, glad I bought this book, it was money well spent.
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Kyle G, at Wed Dec 13, 06:47:00 PM 2006
Kyle---
This is a good final comment. You did a good job explaining the book's SF concepts. I agree that the last couple of stories are not as gripping as the previous ones -- they're more idea than action.
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T Sale, at Wed Dec 13, 09:23:00 PM 2006
Stevenjbo7 --
You addressed some good specific details from the book in your Dec 17 reading blog. They definitely show that you are thinking while your read. Good job on this; I'll look for another good blog when you've read further.
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T Sale, at Mon Dec 18, 01:35:00 PM 2006
I have just finished reading I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov and i really didn't mind this noval and all 9 of its short robot stories. The reason why I thought that this noval was so interesting was how each robot coincide with humans. In the first story there is a robot that is in a family with a mother and a little girl. the robots name is Robbie and i believe he is a early poorer model of that certain type of robot. the main idea of this story is love. The mother has conflict with Robbie and so she gets rid of him to protect her little girl. I was very confused about why the robot was a threat to the little girl in the moms eyes. I feel bad for the robot and the girl but mainly the robot because he isnt able to voice anything and the girl has to suffer with out knowing what happened to it (truthfully).
The second story is a bit confusing but if you just keep thinking about how the laws of robots works it works out in the end. But this story is about a robot that keeps malfunctioning and the reason why is that its orders arent working out with the robot laws.
In the 3rd story you get a sense of "to bad i can't intervene" because there is info that you want to share with the Shagg and Mike about the robot who i think is named Cutie. Anyways, the ending of this story leads me to be dissapointed in how the characters believe their own beliefs but don't understand any other beliefs.
The 4th story is based on a main boss robot that is incharge of these other robots that have less authority. They set this system to work like a hand with these fingers and Dave controls all of them. I didnt know how to relate the fingers really with what was going on at first but once i finished the story i had came to think of the hand ideal like kyle and mike were talking about. But anyways, Dave does this whole robot dancing bit which really screws the system up and what happens is he gets in trouble and they all feel horrible about what has happened and how they couldnt provide for the humans as much as they wanted.
The 5th story is very sugar coated in the sense that it's very sci fi'ish. There are these robots that can read minds and connect with them sort of like fortune tellers. I dont like how the robots are constently lying to these people and i dont think it is right because these people are getting false information.
During this 6th story, one definitely gets the idea that the robots are starting to get more individual. this is because the first law of robots was changed from no harm to humans to it may cause harm. this is also the first step for robot domination. but in this story a robot goes missing and the other characters get frustrated and nervous about it being out because of the law change. it ends up being just as intimidating as one would think because there are some very hostle moments.
As the stories progress it seems that the Robot is getting very idividual like and very safisticated. In this 7th story there is this brain that gets reated for robots and it has all of the same funtions that our brain has because it was modeled after a humans. It is interesting to think about how the sciences have been developing and modifying throughout the noval as a whole. I really started to get excited to finish this book to see if total robot dominashion had been accomplished by the robots.
This noval starts to get more interesting at this point but a little more complexed. but its about a mayer that is like an android humanoid type robot thing and there are a lot like him but he has decided to run for mayer and many suspect him as a robot but then many dont and he convinces everyone that he is human i think,..i dont really understand if he was human or not.
The last story was about the same character Stephen Berley and how the robots finally figure out how to be individuals. it wasn't as flashy and extreme like i wanted it to be but it was nice to know that the robots were at least doing the right things for the humans still.
My opinion on this noval is an encouraging one for those who care. I was very intruiged by how Isaac Asimov but all of these stories together and made them and the robots progress in maturity and individuality. I was bummed in a way to find that this book is not like the movie because i wanted to have supportive info from the movie and it would have been so much more easy haha. But reading this book and the fact that it is different from the movie is great because it opens my eyes to new forms of literature and it was very interesting in all. I would love to read more books writen by Isaac for sure if they are organized like this one.
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Dakota P-J, at Tue Dec 19, 09:01:00 PM 2006
StevenJB07--
Your comment for the last 3rd had good details. I liked the connection to the Matrix, though of course the AIs in the Matrix were evil rather than benign. Your final comment makes some good observations. I also found the earlier stories more gripping.
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T Sale, at Wed Dec 20, 04:21:00 PM 2006
Dakota --
You gave good details to show that you read the stories, and you made your thoughts about the book clear. I would like to see a bit more of your reactions to the book -- more of what you thought of the different characters and so forth -- but you did a good job on this.
By
T Sale, at Tue Jan 09, 01:45:00 PM 2007
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