The Evitable Conflict

Last updated
"The Evitable Conflict"
Short story by Isaac Asimov
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction
Publication
Published in Astounding Science Fiction
Publication type Periodical
Publisher Street & Smith
Media typePrint (magazine, hardback, paperback)
Publication dateJune 1950
Chronology
Series Robot series
Arrleft.svg  
Evidence
  Arrright.svg
Robot Dreams

"The Evitable Conflict" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the June 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and subsequently appeared in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990). It features the character Stephen Byerley from the earlier "Evidence".

Contents

Plot summary

Following on from the previous story 'Evidence,' in the year 2052, Stephen Byerley has been elected World Co-ordinator for a second term. Earth is divided into four geographical regions, each with a powerful supercomputer known as a Machine managing its economy. Byerley becomes concerned upon learning that the Machines have recently made errors leading to economic inefficiency. Consulting with the four regional Vice Co-ordinators, he finds that several prominent individuals and companies associated with the anti-Machine "Society for Humanity" have been damaged by the Machines' apparent mistakes.

Byerley believes that the Society is attempting to undermine the Machines by disobeying their instructions, with the goal of retaking power as humans, and proposes to have the movement suppressed. Susan Calvin tells him that this will not work, contending that the errors are in fact deliberate acts by the Machines. The Machines recognize their own necessity to humanity's continued peace and prosperity, and have thus inflicted a small amount of harm on selected individuals in order to protect themselves and continue guiding humanity's future. They keep their intent a secret to avoid anger and resistance by humans. Calvin concludes that the Machines have generalized the First Law to mean "No machine may harm humanity; or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." (This is similar to the Zeroth Law which Asimov developed in later novels.) In effect, the Machines have decided that the only way to follow the First Law is to take control of humanity.

At the story's conclusion, Byerley and Calvin discuss whether the Machines' actions are ultimately for the best. While Byerley is initially horrified by the prospect of humanity losing any say in its future, Calvin suggests that humanity has never truly been in full command of its future, as humans' choices have always been dictated by their need to survive—leaving their destiny at the mercy of environmental and economic factors affecting their access to the Earth's limited resources. But since the Machines can manage the Earth's resources more efficiently than humans ever could, humans finally have all that they could ever need to survive, and interhuman conflicts are no longer necessary—finally putting world peace within humanity's grasp.

Reception

Stanisław Lem praised the story's central theme as futurologically and empirically valuable. [1]

Adaptations

The story was broadcast as the final episode of a five-part 15 Minute Drama "radio adaptation" of Asimov's I, Robot on BBC Radio 4 in February 2017. [2]

The 2004 film adaptation of I, Robot also includes major elements of the Evitable Conflict with the computer system V.I.K.I. taking the part of the Machine. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>I, Robot</i> Collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov

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.

<i>The Caves of Steel</i> 1954 novel by Isaac Asimov

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.

<i>Foundation</i> series Science-fiction books by Isaac Asimov

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).

<i>Robot</i> series Series of stories by Isaac Asimov

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three Laws of Robotics</span> Fictional set of rules by Isaac Asimov

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. Daneel Olivaw</span> Fictional character from the Foundation Universe by Isaac Asimov

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.

<i>Robots and Empire</i> Science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bicentennial Man</span> Novelette by Isaac Asimov

The Bicentennial Man is a novelette in the Robot series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in Robot Visions, Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, for a science fiction collection to be published in honor of the United States Bicentennial. However, the arrangement fell through, leaving Asimov's the only story actually completed for the project. Asimov sold the story to Judy-Lynn del Rey, who made some small changes to the text. Asimov restored the original text when the story was collected in The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories (1976).

"Robbie" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was the first of Asimov's positronic robot stories. In 2016, "'Robbie" won a retrospective 1941 Hugo Award for best short story. "Robbie" was the fourteenth story written by Asimov, and the ninth to be published. It was the first story in Asimov's Robot series.

"Reason" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in the April 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and collected in I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990). It is part of Asimov's Robot series, and was the second of Asimov's positronic robot stories to see publication.

"Little Lost Robot" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), Robot Dreams (1986), and Robot Visions (1990).

"Evidence" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Calvin</span> Fictional character from the Foundation-Universe by Isaac Asimov

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Last Question</span> Science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov

"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 in the anthologies 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. Through successive generations, humanity questions Multivac on the subject of entropy.

Laws of robotics are any set of laws, rules, or principles, which are intended as a fundamental framework to underpin the behavior of robots designed to have a degree of autonomy. Robots of this degree of complexity do not yet exist, but they have been widely anticipated in science fiction, films and are a topic of active research and development in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence.

"Lenny" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the January 1958 issue of Infinity Science Fiction, and included in the collections The Rest of the Robots (1964), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990).

<i>Tales of Pirx the Pilot</i> 1965 short stories by Stanisław Lem

Tales of Pirx the Pilot is a science fiction stories collection by Polish author Stanisław Lem, about a spaceship pilot named Pirx.

"The Quest for Saint Aquin" is a science fiction short story by the American writer Anthony Boucher, originally published in 1951 in New Tales of Space and Time. "The Quest for Saint Aquin" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AI takeover in popular culture</span>

AI takeover—the idea that some kind of artificial intelligence may supplant humankind as the dominant intelligent species on the planet—is a common theme in science fiction. Famous cultural touchstones include Terminator and The Matrix.

References

  1. Stanisław Lem "Fantastyka i futurologia"
  2. "The Evitable Conflict: Isaac Asimov's I, Robot Episode 5 of 5 (adaptation)". BBC Online . BBC. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  3. Topel, Fred (17 August 2004). "Jeff Vintar was Hardwired for I,ROBOT". Screenwriter's Utopia. Christopher Wehner. Archived from the original on 18 October 2006. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  4. Olander, Joseph; Greenberg, Martin Harry; Warrick, Patricia, eds. (1978). Science fiction : contemporary mythology : the SFWA-SFRA (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row. p. 252. ISBN   0-06-046943-9.
Preceded by:
"Evidence"
Included in:
I, Robot
The Complete Robot
Series:
Robot series
Foundation Series
Followed by:
"Robot Dreams"