The Caves of Steel (Robot, #1)

by Isaac Asimov

Each City became a semiautonomous unit, economically all but self-sufficient. It could roof itself in, gird itself about, burrow itself under. It became a steel cave, a tremendous, self-contained cave of steel and concrete.

Earthmen are all so coddled, so enwombed in their imprisoning caves of steel, that they are caught forever.

We’re forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can’t be understood. It’s what makes us men. “A robot’s brain must be finite or it can’t be built. It must be calculated to the final decimal place so that it has an end. Jehoshaphat, what are you afraid of? A robot can look like Daneel, he can look like a god, and be no more human than a lump of wood is. Can’t you see that?”