Kelden Amadiro is a Spacer and the main antagonist in the novels The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire. He is the head of the Robotics Institute on Aurora. He is known for being extremely against the expansion of Earth to other planets, and in the end even tries to destroy the Earth by speeding up the rate of radiation in its crust. His memory of this is erased by R. Giskard Reventlov; however R. Giskard Reventlov allows Levular Mandamus to destroy the Earth because his motives were more beneficial for humanity and were therefore allowable by the Zeroth Law of Robotics (which was developed by R. Daneel Olivaw): since a slow increase in the rate of radiation would drive Earthpeople to the outer worlds, but a quick increase like Amadiro wanted, would kill the Earth with its population still on it.
Baley was credited with starting the second wave of interstellarspace exploration. He was responsible for the founding of Baleyworld (later became known as Comporellon), the first colonized world of the "Settlers".
Elijah ("Lije") Baley is a plainclothesman, a homicide detective on the New York City police force. In The Caves of Steel, he is called upon to help solve the murder of a Spacer. The Spacers assign him a robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, with whom he becomes lifelong friends, appearing together in two more books (and a short story). Though like all other Earthlings strongly agoraphobic, he starts a "club" on Earth for people to go outside, preparing the way for a second wave of Earth's expansion, led by his son Bentley Baley.
Peter Bogert
Dr. Peter Bogert was second in command after Alfred Lanning, he is usually characterized as trying to seize position from Lanning. He is, however, a brilliant mathematician and is many times successful in the stories where he is featured, mainly those with Susan Calvin as main character. In "Liar!", he asks the robot if Lanning is about to retire, and the robot says yes, and that Bogert is the obvious successor. Bogert uses this to increase his power on the plant, but Lanning gets enraged by this sudden change in hierarchy and makes sure Bogert understands who is in charge.
Dr. Susan Calvin is a character in many short stories. She was the chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century. Typically, Asimov portrays Dr. Calvin as a highly driven woman, focused on her work and divorced from normal emotions, almost more "robotic" than her mechanical patients.
Gladia Delmarre
Gladia Delmarre, later known as Gladia Solaria and Gladia Gremionis (while personally preferring to use no last name at all), is a character from Isaac Asimov's Robot series.
She first appears in the book The Naked Sun, which is set on Solaria, a planet with ten thousand robots for every human being, and where most people cannot tolerate the personal presence of other people. When Gladia's husband is murdered, she is the chief suspect because he would not have allowed anyone else near him. After Elijah Baley solves the murder case, proving that she is not responsible (though she was the one who delivered the actual blow, she appears unaware of that fact, and Baley doesn't share it with others), Gladia moves to Aurora.[1]
In The Robots of Dawn, Elijah and Gladia meet again, this time on Aurora. They become lovers, and Gladia still has vivid memories of him 160 years after his death (as a Spacer, she has a lifespan of several centuries). In Robots and Empire she meets and falls in love with a seventh-generation descendant of Elijah Baley, named DaneelGiskard Baley, travels with him to Solaria and Baleyworld, and then decides to go to Earth and work for peace between Spacers and Settlers.[2]
In Foundation and Earth, one character tells a story to another concerning a Spacer woman who fell in love with a Settler captain, a reference to Gladia.[3]
Han Fastolfe
Dr. Han Fastolfe is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's Robot series. A Spacer scientist from the planet Aurora, he specializes in creating robots that mimic the outward appearance of human beings—androids, although Asimov calls them "humaniform robots". His most significant creations are R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Jander Panell. R. Giskard Reventlov is another of his creations, though he is not a humaniform robot, having a metal exterior. Fastolfe is Elijah Baley's chief Spacer ally; together, he and Baley are key figures in the human race's expansion into the Galaxy.
The daughter of the famous roboticist Han Fastolfe, she is a great roboticist in her own right, famous for manipulating R. Giskard Reventlov, the robot assigned to her by her father, unwittingly giving him telepathic powers.
Later in life she was part of the robotics institute of Aurora and was in line to become the director. Her determination to not be on the planet during her father's death got her traveling to other Spacer worlds, including Solaria, where she came across specific mind patterns and associated them with telepathy, thereby discovering R. Giskard's powers. She tries to use the laws of robotics to get possession of Giskard in the duel scene from Robots and Empire. But with the help of R. Daneel Olivaw and their explanation of the Three Laws of Robotics, Giskard modifies her mind and she remembers nothing.
Alfred Lanning
Dr. Alfred J. Lanning (1971–2035) is a character from the short stories and movie of I, Robot. In the movie he is played by James Cromwell. Lanning is the director of research at U.S. Robotics. His assistant and assumed successor is Peter Bogert.
Clinton Madarian
Clinton Madarian is a robopsychologist. He is introduced as being Calvin's successor in the story "Feminine Intuition".
R. Daneel Olivaw is a humaniform robot (android). The "R" initial in his name stands for "robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society in which all robot names start with the initial R to differentiate them from humans, whom they often resemble. He is a major character in the Robot series, as well as having important roles in the prequels and sequels to the original Foundation Trilogy. Built by Han Fastolfe, he was first assigned to help Elijah Baley solve the murder of his co-creator Roj Nemennuh Sarton, and later teams up with Baley for other detective work.
With R. Giskard Reventlov, a robot with unique telepathic powers, he develops the "Zeroth Law of Robotics," a modification of/addition to the original Three Laws of Robotics, and is given Giskard's powers shortly before Giskard shuts down. He reappears later in the Foundation saga novels.
Powell and Donovan
Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan are fictional characters from Isaac Asimov's Robot short stories. They are practical engineers rather than theoretical roboticists, field specialists for U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, and are employed mainly on testing new or experimental robots in practical situations — either on planets or space stations (robots are banned on Earth). They regularly get into complex and potentially dangerous situations when trying to solve robot issues in the field. The issues typically involve the Three Laws of Robotics. The two are easily distinguishable as Powell sported a mustache and was the calmer of the two while Donovan had red hair and was excitable.
They are mainly comical characters, but they also explore the logical contradictions behind some of the applications of the Three Laws of Robotics. Their adventures stand out in stark contrast to the indoor exploits of Susan Calvin, a dour robopsychologist working for the same company. The characters Powell and Donovan appear in "Runaround", "Reason", "Catch that Rabbit" and "Escape!". Donovan also appears in "First Law". In the Foundation's Friends tribute anthology, they appear in Poul Anderson's story "Plato's Cave", and an elderly Donovan appears in Harry Harrison's "The Fourth Law of Robotics".
R. Giskard Reventlov is a pre-humaniform robot, designed and built on Aurora by Han Fastolfe, and a lifelong companion of Fastolfe. As an unintended result of experiments in programming carried out on him by Fastolfe's student daughter Vasilia Fastolfe, Giskard was given the ability to read and influence emotions [4] of humans and robots.
" I, alone, however, am aware of human emotions and of casts of mind, so that I know of more subtle forms of injury without being able to understand them completely [...] Emotions are readily apparent, thoughts are not."
R. Daneel Olivaw hypothesised the "Zeroth Law of Robotics," as a preface to the Three Laws of Robotics - after a conversation with Elijah Bailey on his deathbed. With Daneel's help and justification of the Zeroth Law, Giskard was able to prevent Kelden Amadiro's destruction of the Earth—though the same law led him to allow a gradual destruction of the Earth through radioactive increases, which would encourage the colonization of the Galaxy. Ultimately his juxtaposition to the Zeroth Law eventually led to the freezing of his brain. Just before he shuts down, he transfers his telepathic abilities to R. Daneel Olivaw.
Lawrence Robertson (1992–2035 in the film) is the co-founder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, the largest robots and advanced technologies company in Asimov's world. His first appearance is in the story "Liar!".
Related Research Articles
I, Robot is a fixup collection made up of science fiction short stories 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 collected into a 1950 publication Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies.
The Caves of Steel is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just being a limited genre in itself.
Prelude to Foundation is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1988. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award.
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 and novellas in 1942–50, and subsequently in three collections in 1951–53, for nearly thirty years the series was a trilogy: Foundation (1951); Foundation and Empire (1952); and Second Foundation (1953). It won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Asimov later added new volumes, with two sequels: Foundation's Edge (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1986), and two prequels: Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993).
The Robot Series is a series of thirty-seven science fiction short stories and six novels created by American writer Isaac Asimov, published from 1940 to 1995. The series is set in a world where sentient positronic robots serve a number of purposes in society. To ensure their loyalty, the Three Laws of Robotics are programmed into these robots, with the intent of preventing them from ever becoming a danger to humanity. Later, Asimov would merge the Robot series with his Foundation series.
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, which were to be followed by robots in several of his stories. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although similar restrictions had been implied in earlier stories.
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.
The Robots of Dawn is a "whodunit" science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. It is the third novel in Asimov's Robot series.
Elijah "Lije" Baley is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's Robot series. He is the main character of the novels The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn, and of the short story "Mirror Image." He is seen in flashbacks several times and talked about frequently in Robots and Empire, which is set roughly 160 years after his death. He is further mentioned in passing in "Foundation and Earth" as a "Culture Hero". Besides Asimov's works he appears in the Foundation's Friends story "Strip-Runner" by Pamela Sargent, and "Isaac Asimov's 'The Caves of Steel'" poem by Randall Garrett.
Foundation and Chaos (1998) is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear, set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe. It is the second book of the Second Foundation trilogy, which was written after Asimov's death by three authors, authorized by the Asimov estate.
Foundation's Triumph (1999) is a science fiction novel by American writer David Brin, set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe. It is the third book of the Second Foundation trilogy, which was written after Asimov's death by three authors, authorized by the Asimov estate. Brin synthesizes dozens of Foundation-Empire-Robots novels and short stories by Isaac Asimov, Roger MacBride Allen, and authorized others into a consistent framework. Foundation's Triumph includes an appendix chronology compiled by Attila Torkos.
The Rest of the Robots is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1964. The stories, centred on positronic robots, are all part of the Robot series, most of which take place in the Foundation universe. Another collection of short stories about robots, I, Robot, was re-published in the previous year, which is why Asimov chose to title the collection as The Rest of the Robots. None of the short stories in this collection were in I, Robot, however all of them were later included in The Complete Robot, and both novels about Elijah Baley were also published separately.
Dr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character appearing in Isaac Asimov's Robot series of science fiction short stories. According to I, Robot, Susan Calvin was born in the year 1982 and died at the age of 82, either in 2064 or 2065.
I, Robot is a 2004 American science fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman is from a screen story by Vintar, based on his original screenplay Hardwired, and named after Isaac Asimov's 1950 short-story collection. The film stars Will Smith in the main role, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, and Alan Tudyk. Set in Chicago in 2035, highly intelligent robots fill public service positions throughout the world, operating under three laws to keep humans safe. Detective Del Spooner (Smith) investigates the alleged suicide of U.S. Robotics founder Alfred Lanning (Cromwell) and believes that a human-like robot called Sonny (Tudyk) murdered him.
"Mirror Image" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the May 1972 issue Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and collected in The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), The Complete Robot (1982), Robot Visions (1990), and The Complete Stories, Volume 2 (1992).
Robots is a 1988 Interactive movie directed by Doug Smith and Kim Takal. Its screenplay, by Peter Olatka, is based on Isaac Asimov's Robot series. It stars Stephen Rowe as Elijah Baley, Brent Barrett as R. Daneel Olivaw, and John Henry Cox as Han Fastolfe.
The Foundation universe is the future history of humanity's colonization of the galaxy, spanning nearly 25,000 years, created through the gradual fusion of the Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation book series written by American author Isaac Asimov.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
