Me, a robot
Are you scared of the rise of artificial intelligence? Explore the prospects for humanity in nine legendary tales from the father of robotic ethics!
Mankind has evolved legions of artificial beings and can whistle. The mechanical helpers will provide everything their masters can think of. They look after the children, do not only the hard work in the mines or in the machine shop, but also the most delicate tasks in the service sector, and always obey their creators - thanks to the three laws of robotics, which they are obliged to follow. According to these provisions, they must not harm a person or allow anything to happen to him, and they must even protect him knowing that they could lose their circuits for good in the process. Or does that not quite apply? In Asimov's masterful short story collection from the golden age of science fiction, robots go mad and rebel, get lost, talk about God, or read other people's minds. In short, they resemble us more than is generally desirable and than their creators would like...
Compelling, subversive and prophetically thoughtful stories from the pen of a brilliant visionary. After all, they don't age - quite the opposite!
They wrote about the book:
This exciting scientific thriller will entertain anyone whose nerves have not yet been crippled by the potential of the atomic age.
- The New York Times, 1951
A must-read for all fans of science fiction and lovers of quality literature, it presents ever-relevant ideas about artificial intelligence (...), as we all live in a hectic age of technology where the scope of robotics is radically expanding.
- The Guardian
With its thought-provoking elaboration of themes such as the ethics of highly intelligent machines, the nature of humanity, and the degree of control individuals have over their own destiny, this book remains a mainstay of the literary canon to this day.
- SF Books Reviews
Isaac Asimov
One of the most famous science fiction authors of the 20th century was born Isaak Iudich Azimov in Russia, but his parents moved to New York three years later. He became an American citizen in 1928, studied chemistry, and taught biochemistry at Boston University for ten years before becoming a professional writer in 1958. Two distinctive strands in Asimov's extensive literary output are the short stories and novels dealing with robots (most famously, the author's Three Laws of Robotics) and the prose cycle on the Foundation, the basis of which is a trilogy - Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and The Second Foundation (1953) - later awarded the Hugo Award for contribution to the genre. At the publisher's insistence, Asimov returned to the series and expanded it with four more titles. In the 1960s and 1970s, he devoted himself to non-fiction and popular science books on astronomy, physics, history, chemistry, mathematics and biology. He won the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards for his novel Neither the Gods Themselves (1973), which features aliens who are otherwise rather neglected by the author. Another of his still acclaimed works is The End of Eternity (1955), a complicated tale of time travel and a secret organization that influences the development of human civilization by constantly correcting history. He has also written several books for young people under the pseudonym Paul French, the hero of which is the space adventurer Lucky Starr. Many of Isaac Asimov's works have been adapted into films: among the most famous are Andrew - A Member of Our Family (1999) with Robin Williams and I, Robot (2004) with Will Smith. A TV series based on the Foundation book series is being made by Apple in 2021.
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| Code: | AK1I669 |