I, Robot

By: Isaac Asimov

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world - all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov’s trademark.

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 orders given to 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.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future - a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

©1950, 1977 Isaac Asimov (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Great book

Great book and a great narrator. One of Asimov's best. Laws of robotics are examined well in the book.

What an amazing story!

This book pulls you in little by little. Each chapter challenges you to think of the complicated moral dilemmas posed in each scenario. What a relevant book for where we are headed. The speaker is a great reader and plays each role perfectly.

asimov for the win.

I love dr. calvin. one of the great female characters of old sci fi. but once again, each concept is treated in kind in each short story and we get to work out one aspect at a time!

Classic but only a little dated

What a great story, so prescient, written way before its time. What we know as AI today is different from that imagined by Asimov, but the difference is not so important. Highly recommended!

Great Book!

Subtle and perfect in delivering its warning. This is going to happen. Excellently done! Recommended.

A classic for a reason

A wonderful book, even after all this time. As much a collection of short stories that stand on their own, connected by common threads, as it is a novel divided by chapters.

It’s always fascinating to see where science fiction authors from the mid-twentieth century guess wrong (always a LOT more smoking in the projections than the future actually entails), and it’s interesting to see the pieces and progressions Asimov got right, as AI becomes more and more entwined with our daily lives and with humanity itself.

If you’ve only seen the film “adaptation”, ignore it. Whomever made the film either didn’t read the source material, or didn’t care to make a cohesive movie from one or more of the novel’s chapters.

Scott Brick is brilliant as always.

A vision from the 40s

Very good collection of early Asimov short stories with a common thread. Interesting seeing how his vision played out. Got pretty slow toward the end with lots of conversational scenes on theoreticals.

Still, you don’t know Asimov until you’ve read this.

timeless

I really enjoyed this story. As good science fiction should be, this doesn't feel dated.

No wonder he revolutionized robot sci-fi

This book is the epicenter of robot science fiction. The depth and complexity of politics, sociology, and science of a robotic future is amazingly put together. When we think of this kind of future, IA captured it with genious!

What if? As man makes machines, who serves whom.

So for starters, remove Will Smith and references to the movie from the cover. While entertaining, I really liked the movie, it is only loosely based on the book. Read I, Robot to explore the many scenarios; ethical, moral, financial, social and political, that occur having robots that serve humanity. But then, what does that service mean. How do you resolve "do no harm to a human or allow harm through inaction", the 1st law of robotics.