Isaac Asimov

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File:Isaac Asimov on Throne.png
Doctor Asimov, master of all he surveys!

Isaac Asimov (2 January 1920 [1] – 6 April 1992) is credited as one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. If you don't believe us, read I, Robot! Or better still, The Foundation Trilogy. Along with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein, Asimov is considered to be one of the "big three" of science fiction.

Life

Originally, Asimov started in the field of biochemistry, earning a PhD in the subject in 1948 and taking a teaching position at Boston University's School of Medicine until he turned to writing full time in 1958. He is most famed for his writing on robotics but during the 1960s, he shifted his focus almost entirely to writing popular science, which was inspired by the public's new found interest in science following the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The high quality and diversity of his pop science work earned him the title of the "Great Explainer" and once promoted Kurt Vonnegut to ask him "how does it feel to know everything?". He considered himself a rationalist and humanist, and also did some work in refuting superstition and pseudoscience.

Three laws

File:I-robot.jpg
A robot about to be executed. Does this violate the Three Laws? Does it???

Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:

First law: A robot may not, through its actions or inactions, allow a human to come to harm.
Second law: A robot must obey any order given to it, unless in contradiction of the First Law.
Third law: A robot must protect its own existence, unless in contradiction of the First or Second Law.

These rules apparently logically lead to a fourth, or rather, Zeroth law: A robot may not harm Humanity or, through inaction, allow Humanity to come to harm. This may also be considered a corollary. The I Robot series of short stories plays with these "rules", and endlessly exploits their weak links. For instance, what would happen to the laws if a human ordered a robot to kill someone, but threatened to kill themselves if the robot did not obey. Clearly, someone's head is going to explode at some point.

I Robot, The Movie

The 2004 film version of I, Robot resembles the book in the following particulars:

  1. The title.[2]

Homer Simpson encounters one of Asimov's Robots

I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot
and 18:30 minutes into this 21 minute video of the episode (in Russian)

External links

Footnotes

  1. Asimov was unsure of his exact date of birth but celebrated it as having been 2 January 1920
  2. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=i_robot