The book is set at a point in history where humanity is spread among many planets and divided into two main cultures. There are the Settlers, who reject robotics as an affront to human potential, and the Spacers whose lives are saturated by robotics. The planet Inferno is a Spacer planet, though some characters are Settler visitors and provide a perceptual counterpoint to the Spacers' belief in their own superiority.
Three Laws of Robotics
The book focuses on a cultural and legal dilemma posed by the Three Laws of Robotics after a roboticist is apparently assaulted by one of her robots. This event threatens to cause a global panic, because the planet's entire way of life relies on the belief that robots are incapable of harming or disobeying humans. The robots produced on this planet have their Three Laws integrated into every neural pathway, such that even seeing harm done to a human can physically destroy a robot's brain. They are thus incapable of rebellion or disobedience, and are even unable to think anything which is contrary to the instructions of humans.
Dependence on Robots
The total servitude and extreme intelligence of the robots have severely damaging effects on the mental and physical health of the human population. Robots have taken over many basic tasks such as driving cars and even dressing humans. The main character, Alvar Kresh, decides to do an 'experiment' in which he tells his robot not to help him in the morning. The next morning he notices his dependence on robots; he is late, doesn't know where his clothes are and can't get his clothes on properly. He starts to think about the negative effects due to their dependence on robots.
In many performance halls, all but the lead actors in a play are normally robots. And since nobody goes to the theatre, many of the seats are filled with robots to make the house look packed. So at home on your screen what you see is a theatre full of robots applauding a stage full of robots. She notes another example of a woman who has a robot with enough intelligence to fly a spaceship, yet the robot's whole job is to brush the woman's teeth and hold the toothbrush in between. Over-reliance on robotics is presented as a waste of intelligence and human potential.
Another symptom of too much robotic coddling presented in the book is called Inertia Syndrome. Alvar Kresh recalls the case of a man who became extremely agoraphobic and used his robots to wall himself off not only from the world but from all physical activity. Eventually he confined himself to a bed with a feeding tube, and demanded that his robots only enter the room as absolutely necessary in order to clean. At all other times he was alone, interacting with the world through computer screens only.
The Three Laws of Robotics are examined in this novel not from the standpoint of what might happen if they fail, but what might happen if they work too well. "Settlers," who do not use robots, observe that Spacers' reliance on robotics has made them incompetent at a number of basic tasks. The average citizen of Inferno does not know their own address, cannot drive a car or dress themselves, and is extremely antisocial. In general, they use robots to avoid all human conflict and with it all human contact of any sort. Fredda Leving notes that birthrates on all Spacer planets are below replacement level.
Plot summary
This series deals with a new type of robots who do not have the Three Laws of Robotics. The Three Laws are integral to the functioning of a positronic brain, but these robots have gravitonic brains, into which it is possible to build any set of laws. For example, some gravitonic robots have already been built with the New Laws of Robotics which are designed to make them partners rather than slaves to humanity.
Simcor Beddle's Ironhead movement stages a hit-and-run attack on a plantation near Settlertown, and they crop up once or twice more as the story progresses. The Ironheads nearly successfully start a riot when Beddle castigates Dr. Leving after one of her lectures on the nature of robots and how they affect human beings. It is her thesis that the superabundance of robotic labor has caused humans to become indolent and nearly incompetent at accomplishing even trivial tasks. She also claims that robots themselves do not qualify as a very good successor to humanity given that their sole purpose is to serve humans.
It is revealed that some members of Leving Labs have both personal and professional secrets to hide: Gubber Anshaw is romantically involved with Tonya Welton, while Jomaine Terach is aware of the creation of Caliban and the fact that he lacked the Three Laws of Robotics. Sheriff Alver Kresh is aided in this respect when Caliban encounters a robot at a shipping depot and recounts his entire life history (about five days' worth). While the robot nearly seizes in brainlock and ends up precipitating a minor catastrophe by hyperwaving for help, the story the robot tells confirms what Kresh later uses to get the truth out of Terach.
Caliban escapes the City of Hades (the capital of Inferno), but is located by both Dr. Leving and Sheriff Kresh. Kresh uses the occasion to finger the true culprit in the assault on Leving, who turns out to have been Ariel, Tonya Welton's personal robot. She had switched serial numbers with another robot after a test had been run on her brain and comparing it to a normal Three-Law robotic brain. She, like Caliban, had been programmed without the Laws of Robotics, but had been purely a stationary unit. In switching the serial numbers, Ariel was able to have a set of robotic legs placed on her, allowing her to masquerade as a "normal" robot.
Kresh rightly believes that Ariel presents far too great of a danger to human beings, and shoots her. However, he is convinced that Caliban does not present the same danger based on clues about his behavior, and allows him to remain functional. Caliban then goes with Dr. Leving to the island of Purgatory.
Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, which is titled Foundation's Edge.
The Foundation series is a science fiction book series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories in 1942–50, and subsequently in three collections in 1951–53, for thirty years the series was a trilogy: Foundation; Foundation and Empire; and Second Foundation. It won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Asimov began adding new volumes in 1981, with two sequels: Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, and two prequels: Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation. The additions made reference to events in Asimov's Robot and Empire series, indicating that they also were set in the same fictional universe.
The Robot series is a series of 37 science fiction short stories and six novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring positronic robots.
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they had been foreshadowed in some earlier stories. The Three Laws, quoted from the "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are:
A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for robots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans. When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939 and 1940, the positron was a newly discovered particle, and so the buzz word "positronic" added a scientific connotation to the concept. Asimov's 1942 short story "Runaround" elaborates his fictional Three Laws of Robotics, which are ingrained in the positronic brains of nearly all of his robots.
R. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "Robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society during Earth's early period of space colonization. Daneel is introduced in The Caves of Steel, a serialized story published in Galaxy magazine vol. 7 #1-3 from October to December 1953. The full story was published by Doubleday as a hardcover book in 1954.
Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov, published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's Robot series, which consists of many short stories and five novels.
The Naked Sun is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his Robot series. Like its predecessor, The Caves of Steel, this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after being serialized in Astounding Science Fiction between October and December 1956.
Isaac Asimov's Inferno (1994) is a science fiction novel by American writer Roger MacBride Allen, set in Isaac Asimov's Robot/Empire/Foundation universe.
Isaac Asimov's Utopia (1996) is a science fiction novel by American writer Roger MacBride Allen, set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe.
"The Last Question" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and was anthologized in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959), The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), Robot Dreams (1986), The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov (1986), the retrospective Opus 100 (1969), and in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 (1990). While he also considered it one of his best works, “The Last Question” was Asimov's favorite short story of his own authorship, and is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac. Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which were first formulated in 1940, outline the criteria for robotic existence in relation to humans. Through successive generations, humanity questions Multivac on the subject of entropy. The story overlaps science fiction, theology, and philosophy.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City is a series of novels written by various authors and loosely connected to Isaac Asimov's Robot series. It takes place between The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire. Each volume is complete in itself, but they form a continuing series. The novels were written in response to a writing challenge issued by Asimov to write a series involving the Three Laws of Robotics, which brought about a collaboration of several authors. Asimov provided outlines for stories which filled in the gap between Asimov's own robot stories and his Foundation series, explaining the disappearance of the robots prior to the establishment of the galactic empire. Isaac Asimov's Robots and Aliens followed in this series, with the same protagonists and many other characters. The common theme of all books of both series is the interaction between the characters and autonomous cities run and populated by robots. Robot City was also released as a mystery game for the PC in 1995. The player takes the role of Derec.
"Victory Unintentional" is a humorous science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in the August 1942 issue of Super Science Stories and included in the collections The Rest of the Robots (1964) and The Complete Robot (1982).
Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Suspicion is a book written in 1987 by Mike McQuay. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, which is inspired by Isaac Asimov's Robot series.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg is a 1987 novel by William F. Wu. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, which are inspired by Isaac Asimov's Robot series, and his Foundation novels.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Prodigy is a book written in 1988 by Arthur Byron Cover. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, which are inspired by Isaac Asimov's Robot series.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Refuge is a book written in 1988 by Rob Chilson. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, which is based on Isaac Asimov's Robot series. It was Rob Chilson's return to writing at novel length after a break of over a decade.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Perihelion is a book written in 1988 by William F. Wu. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, which was inspired by Isaac Asimov's Robot series.
The Foundation universe is the future history of humanity's colonisation of the galaxy, spanning nearly 25,000 years, created through the gradual fusion of the Robot, Galactic Empire, Foundation book series written by American author Isaac Asimov.
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