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I, Robot
(Robot #0.1)
by
THE CLASSIC COLLECTION OF ROBOT STORIES FROM THE MASTER OF THE GENRE.
Earth is ruled by master-machines but the Three Laws of Robotics have been designed to ensure humans maintain the upper hand:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with t ...more
Earth is ruled by master-machines but the Three Laws of Robotics have been designed to ensure humans maintain the upper hand:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with t ...more
Paperback, 245 pages
Published
June 6th 2013
by Harper Voyager
(first published 1950)
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Start your review of I, Robot

A Brief History Of Robo Sapiens In Nine Sequences
“Why … WHY does something invariably go wrong with them?”
“Because”, said Powell somberly, “we are accursed. Let’s go!”
Asimov’s collection of short stories is a stunning document of humanity’s struggle to find balance in a world increasingly dominated by technological progress, but with the same social, political and emotional conflicts as always.
At first glance, the different stories seem to show the growing sophistication of robots, and their ...more
“Why … WHY does something invariably go wrong with them?”
“Because”, said Powell somberly, “we are accursed. Let’s go!”
Asimov’s collection of short stories is a stunning document of humanity’s struggle to find balance in a world increasingly dominated by technological progress, but with the same social, political and emotional conflicts as always.
At first glance, the different stories seem to show the growing sophistication of robots, and their ...more

(539 From 1001 Books) - I, Robot (Robot #0.1), Isaac Asimov
I, Robot is a fix up of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book for stand-alone publication by Gnome Press in 1950.
عنوان: من، روبوت - ایزاک آسیموف - انتشاراتیها (پاسارگاد، عطایی)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش ماه نوامبر سال 2007میلادی
عنوان: من روبوت ...more
I, Robot is a fix up of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book for stand-alone publication by Gnome Press in 1950.
عنوان: من، روبوت - ایزاک آسیموف - انتشاراتیها (پاسارگاد، عطایی)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش ماه نوامبر سال 2007میلادی
عنوان: من روبوت ...more

Jun 21, 2018
İntellecta
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-stories,
classics
The book consists of futuristic robot short stories recounted by Susan Calvin (robot psychologist) in retrospect. Even though the reader could read the short stories quite well, they unfortunately don´t created tension at all. On the one hand, the writing style seems a little bit outdated and on the other hand I don´t like the lack of composition of the topic. Or maybe I had even a false expectation.

First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Until I started reading this book, I did not know it is a series of short stories. I have always expected this to be a novel with one main story. There is some connection between the stories as they represent the evolution of robot use throughout the life of one of the top robotics experts, Susan Calvin.
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders wo ...more
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Until I started reading this book, I did not know it is a series of short stories. I have always expected this to be a novel with one main story. There is some connection between the stories as they represent the evolution of robot use throughout the life of one of the top robotics experts, Susan Calvin.
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders wo ...more

Jul 19, 2007
Kevin
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Sci-Fi Thinkers
Shelves:
scifi
Isaac Asimov's books were far from the normal trash novels you might buy for a 2 day read. Within anything he has written, he tries to spell out lessons in psychology.
How would we react to Robots once they become free thinkers?
How should we react to Robots when they become our slaves?
Should we institute a whole new brand of slavery for the purpose of a "clean society"?
What is sentient life?
The I, Robot novel progresses through these questions, and questions like them, in scenarios rarely ever po ...more
How would we react to Robots once they become free thinkers?
How should we react to Robots when they become our slaves?
Should we institute a whole new brand of slavery for the purpose of a "clean society"?
What is sentient life?
The I, Robot novel progresses through these questions, and questions like them, in scenarios rarely ever po ...more

This short story anthology has a lot of stories in common with Robot Visions which I read earlier. In fact there are only two ones in the former absent in the latter: Catch That Rabbit and Escape! I rated Robot Visions with 3 stars; this one is surprisingly (even to myself) rated higher. One of the reasons is that Visions included several essays; all of them aged much more than the stores themselves - and the stories did age.
Another reason is related to the structure of I, Robot. It actually ha ...more
Another reason is related to the structure of I, Robot. It actually ha ...more

"If one and a half chickens lay one and a half eggs in one and a half days, how many eggs will nine chickens lays in nine days?"
This is incredible, the best of all science fiction I have read yet. As Fredrick Pohl put it:
“A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.”
Asimov not only does that - and he goes one step further, he proposes a solution for the metaphorical traffic jam - in this case, ethical issues related to AI, in form of his ...more

Unredacted transcript of the meeting between Dr Susan Calvin, Head Psychologist, United States Robots, and Dr Peter Bogert, Managing Director, United States Robots obtained by Wikileaks from undisclosed sources.
Date: 9-5-2025 11:15 EST
BOGERT : The reason I asked to see you today, Dr Calvin, is that my office has a disturbing rumour that you have developed a robot to write book reviews.
CALVIN : Well, that is correct. They have been functioning for some time.
BOGERT : I am surprised - surely revi ...more
Date: 9-5-2025 11:15 EST
BOGERT : The reason I asked to see you today, Dr Calvin, is that my office has a disturbing rumour that you have developed a robot to write book reviews.
CALVIN : Well, that is correct. They have been functioning for some time.
BOGERT : I am surprised - surely revi ...more

4.5 stars
I LOVED this book so much. I honestly just want more of this. This concept was brilliant and the different situations and solutions that this author created were incredible. I'm so excited to read more from this author ...more
I LOVED this book so much. I honestly just want more of this. This concept was brilliant and the different situations and solutions that this author created were incredible. I'm so excited to read more from this author ...more

Though I do love Asimov's writing, he was most certainly a product of his times. (Translate - horrifically sexist.) The one female character who is in nearly all these stories is Dr. Susan Calvin. Practically every time she shows up, the author felt it necessary to comment on her appearance. When young, she was "plain." As she ages, she becomes "plain" and "middle-aged." The male characters looks are not commented on other than the mention that one is bald, and one has red hair. And though there
...more

About a week ago, I stayed up until 4 a.m to read this book. IT WAS SO WORTH IT! When you are a teenager and you read your way into the morning, you know it is a good book. When you are an adult who doesn't function well with a few hours of sleep and you still do that, then you know it is a great book. Fair enough? Or is it just me? I found it easier to function with less sleep when I was younger. Not that I feel old. YET.
I, Robot is written as a serious of stories featuring a group of individua ...more
I, Robot is written as a serious of stories featuring a group of individua ...more

Apr 03, 2009
Brooke
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2009,
science-fiction
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It's a series of short stories revolving around Susan Calvin, a robopsychologist with the company U.S. Robots. The stories show the progression of robots (from ones that can't even talk to the machines that govern how the planet operates) and the relationship humans have with them.
I really enjoyed the overall arc and how it was presented. I also really dug how most of the stories were puzzles abo ...more
I really enjoyed the overall arc and how it was presented. I also really dug how most of the stories were puzzles abo ...more

A great collection of short stories with the common theme of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are presented within the framing device as Chief Robopsychologist Dr. Calvin recounts her life’s work.
Like any collection I found some stories to be strong than others with Robbie and Reason to be my two favourites.
With all the stories featuring originally in Sci-Fi magazines during the 1940’s, I felt it was quite telling that the stronger tales were the earlier ones written.
Like any collection I found some stories to be strong than others with Robbie and Reason to be my two favourites.
With all the stories featuring originally in Sci-Fi magazines during the 1940’s, I felt it was quite telling that the stronger tales were the earlier ones written.

There is a method to the madness!
The other day when my spiffing new copy of the Foundation series arrived on my doorstep, faithfully delivered by the only Amazon delivery guy in our part of the town and I had to turn to them to have my fix of the written word ever since the only bookstore in the town was closed down (or rather was converted into a boutique), my dear friend, who is by the way one of those guys who has their rooms covered in comic graffiti and a bat signal alarm clock that he is s
...more
What a fabulous book! Isaac Asimov is an awesome scientist and writer. I’ve watched a few interviews and he is a very smart man. If only we had more like him in the world. I don’t agree with his views on God, but other than that, I would definitely have driven anywhere in the USA for a book-signing event of his.
I, Robot is my first Asimov book and I'm glad I started here. The book talks about many points when it comes to robots, or just technology in general. It opens with a girl who is attache ...more
I, Robot is my first Asimov book and I'm glad I started here. The book talks about many points when it comes to robots, or just technology in general. It opens with a girl who is attache ...more

Aug 04, 2016
Sr3yas
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi-challenge-d-j,
book-series-ongoing
❝ Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.❞
------------- Isaac Asimov--------------
This collection of concept-driven stories featuring robots were some of the first stories written by Science fiction god, Isaac Asimov. These stories also introduce the "Three laws of robotics" which became a milestone in science fiction history.
Pure logic based problem-solving and the genuine awe-inspiring imagination; Tha ...more

In 1989 I drove to Indianapolis to meet Eric, a collector of rare films, ostensibly to see his 16-millimeter print of the elusive 1926 W.C. Fields movie, So's Your Old Man, of which he claimed there were only a half dozen extant copies. We also screened prints of the Lon Chaney Sr. silent, He Who Gets Slapped and the silent German mountain film classic, The White Hell of Pitz Palu, both of which, at the time, were very difficult to see but which have since been issued on DVD. For good measure, h
...more

This is the original "I, Robot" (not the movie of the same name) is excellent & absolutely a classic. It set the tone & often the ground rules for almost every artificial intelligence novel since it was written. The three laws of robotics first appeared in these stories. There are quite a few stories from humorous to touching to scary. Asimov had a pretty good idea that artificial intelligence was similar to fire - a dangerous servant. He proves it in these pages.
This paperback version strings t ...more
This paperback version strings t ...more

Asimov gives you quite a good idea of what's it like to have to debug an artificial intelligence, before there were any. Applause! The movie, however, is an abomination that should have been strangled at birth. They've made Susan Calvin sexy; you see her suggestively outlined through the semi-opaque glass of her shower cubicle.
I can't continue with this review. I'm starting to get too emotional. Sorry. A few things are still sacred, you know?
_____________________________________
PS My real I, Ro ...more
I can't continue with this review. I'm starting to get too emotional. Sorry. A few things are still sacred, you know?
_____________________________________
PS My real I, Ro ...more

Sep 12, 2016
Alex
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who dress their RealDolls up for tea parties
Shelves:
2016
Isaac Asimov is less a writer of books than a puzzle creator. Each of the linked short stories in I, Robot poses a problem, like an SAT logic problem, and works its way to a (usually) clever answer. Foundation, his most famous work, is the same thing. Asimov has less in common with the other Big Three mid-20th century science fiction writers than he does with Encyclopedia Brown.
But this is the book that invented the Three Laws of Robotics, which are so famous that basically no one has ever talke ...more
But this is the book that invented the Three Laws of Robotics, which are so famous that basically no one has ever talke ...more

***NO SPOILERS***
(Full disclosure: Book abandoned on page 86 [out of 273 pages].)
(Full disclosure: Book abandoned on page 86 [out of 273 pages].)
Under other circumstances, it might have been a beautiful sight. The stream of high-speed electrons impinging upon the energy beam fluoresced into ultraspicules of intense light. The beam stretched out into shrinking nothingness, a-glitter with dancing, shining motes.Unfortunately, this is how I, Robot goes (at least up until page 86). Asimov’s vision is an inventive and interesting one, but it isn’t geared to the e ...more

3½ stars, rounded up for the scope of Asimov's AI
Interesting ideas and conception of robotics conveyed in a series of short stories. I could read about Asimov's robotics all day. His scope of cultural changes (ie revolution), however, is lacking in comparison. The year 2007 in the book does not seem like actual 2007 at all, same goes for 2015, and same for 2035 I'd imagine. The cultural climate feels more like the 1950s with the addition of accelerated scientific advancement than the world we're ...more
Interesting ideas and conception of robotics conveyed in a series of short stories. I could read about Asimov's robotics all day. His scope of cultural changes (ie revolution), however, is lacking in comparison. The year 2007 in the book does not seem like actual 2007 at all, same goes for 2015, and same for 2035 I'd imagine. The cultural climate feels more like the 1950s with the addition of accelerated scientific advancement than the world we're ...more

7 out of 10
I'm no sure why I wasn't aware this isn't a continuous narrative, but rather a collection of semi-connected short stories, so if you're like me - now you know. This wasn't an issue, I actually really like sci-fi short stories, but I just didn't love all of them. For a few of them I really liked the idea they were addressing, but the execution left me pretty cold. A few I actually really loved. And of course, the speculation revolving around Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" is interes ...more
I'm no sure why I wasn't aware this isn't a continuous narrative, but rather a collection of semi-connected short stories, so if you're like me - now you know. This wasn't an issue, I actually really like sci-fi short stories, but I just didn't love all of them. For a few of them I really liked the idea they were addressing, but the execution left me pretty cold. A few I actually really loved. And of course, the speculation revolving around Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" is interes ...more

Classic set of short stories in which Asimov establishes his three laws of robotics which govern the behaviour of his robots and then plays with the idea. Still entertaining.
The scope is far ranging - space colonisation, artificial intelligence, faster than light travel, one world government and resistance to the same (and to artificial intelligence which provides a kind of ultimate technocratic authority) relationships (in every story) between people and robots, particularly if there are or are ...more
The scope is far ranging - space colonisation, artificial intelligence, faster than light travel, one world government and resistance to the same (and to artificial intelligence which provides a kind of ultimate technocratic authority) relationships (in every story) between people and robots, particularly if there are or are ...more

Perfect. We don't have a lot of sci-fi classics that are both deep and page turner, but Asimov does the fiction so incredibly great making the science so interesting and easy to read. I, robot has a lot of psicology regarding men and technology, and specially this days, it is so disturbing understand the fact that Asimov wasn't playing fun. We are becoming codependent to machines. A perfect read for anyone who wants to read a classic of the genre.
¡TE AMO ROBBIE! (por si estaban con el pendiente ...more
¡TE AMO ROBBIE! (por si estaban con el pendiente ...more

Note: I'm reviewing each short story as I listen to it.
1. Robbie - ★★★★★

Robbie depicts the strong bond between an eight years old girl and her non-speaking robot. Naturally, it is a strong one, and the mother tries desperately to break it.
The ending is a bit surprising, but expected. ...more
1. Robbie - ★★★★★

Robbie depicts the strong bond between an eight years old girl and her non-speaking robot. Naturally, it is a strong one, and the mother tries desperately to break it.
The ending is a bit surprising, but expected. ...more

Mar 11, 2008
Smarti
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-books,
fantasy
This rarely happens to me: I just could not finish this book. I found it unbearable and about half-way through I really did not care about how these stories would continue. In my opinion, it is incredibly poorly written and frankly, I found these robot stories dull and boring content-wise as well. I read that this is supposed to be one of the classics of sci-fi. I don't have a lot of experience with that genre but if this book is supposed to be one of the best, I doubt the genre is for me.
I'll n ...more
I'll n ...more

Jun 18, 2020
Zoe Artemis Spencer Reid
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
science-fic,
short-stories-novella
A splendid, fun, very well written and somewhat provoking collection of short stories about a futuristic world in which robots and machines became an integral part in humanity as a whole. The stories were presented chronologically in the history of robot creation since they were banned on earth until they became the omnipotent machine that quietly decided every step mankind took for the ultimate good of all humanity. The stories even though very funny sometimes, held deep meaning and insight tow
...more
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Isaac Asimov was a Russian-born, American author, a professor of biochemistry, and a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.
Professor Asimov is generally considered one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. He has works published in nine o ...more
Professor Asimov is generally considered one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. He has works published in nine o ...more
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“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”
—
544 likes
“The Three Laws of Robotics:
1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;
3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law;
The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”
—
183 likes
More quotes…
1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;
3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law;
The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”
Apr 27, 2020 12:14PM
May 24, 2020 05:56AM