Resumo de I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov, the grand master of modern science fiction, wrote this
classic collection of stories as the first in his Robot novel series.
It deals with the relationships between human and robot. As one of
Asimov's earliest novels, it introduced the Three Laws of Robotics that
have set the standard for the use of robots in science fiction. In
fact, Asimov was the acknowledged creator of the term 'robotics'.The stories are tied together via the reminiscences of Dr. Susan
Calvin, a robopsychologist for U. S. Robot and Mechanical Men, the
corporation that invented and manufactured intelligent robots and
computing machines. She reflects upon the evolution of these robots and
discusses how little humanity really understands about the artificial
intelligence it has created. Each story illuminates a problem
encountered when a robot interprets the three fundamental Laws and
something goes awry. One robot questions the reason for his existence.
Another feels a necessity to lie. Yet another has an ego problem. The
later stories introduce the reader to the Machines, powerful computing
robots without the typical humanoid personalities of the working
robots, that control the economic and industrial processes of the world
and that stand between mankind and destruction. These stories introduce
some fascinating and sometimes unsettling ideas: where does one draw
the fine line between intelligent robot and human? Can man and robot
form a balanced relationship? Can a robot's creator reliably predict
its behavior based upon its programming? Can logic alone be used to
determine what is best for humanity? 'I, Robot' was published in 1950 and includes stories written in
the 1940's, when general-purpose electronic digital computers were
still in their infancy. I was struck by what a visionary Asimov was. He
had captured the mechanics of contemporary software development through
these stories about the manufacture of the intelligent robot, whose
positronic brain contained complex programming that inevitably had bugs
that needed troubleshooting. Anyone who has ever written a computer
program or has fallen victim to software bugs will get an eerie feeling
of deja vu while reading these stories. Asimov's writing style might
not be the most polished in science fiction and his characterizations
might be a bit wooden, but the concepts presented here will blow you
away. This is required reading for any fan of science fiction.

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