I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
This book from the 1950s is one of the most respected works of science fiction in the English language. It tells the story of how “robots” (what we’d probably now call computers and artificial intelligence) end up taking over the world.
Fortunately, Asimov’s dystopian tale has ended up not becoming true – in the timespans described by the book, at least. Computers are often described as having personal traits (like it “knows” this or it “learned” that), true. But computers are not embodied like Asimov describes it.
Nonetheless, Asimov’s prescience is impressive considering the state of computing and robotics in 1950, when Asimov wrote. Sure, Asimov had access to the cutting-edge literature of the time (and the cutting-edge science as Asimov trained as a biochemist). His story is good food-for-thought for people who try to extend present-day realities into the future in a productive and helpful way.
Many humans use technology as mindless sheep (or lemmings?) today as Asimov predicts. Intelligent people are always in-demand, he tells us. Such, thankfully, is as true today as it was in 1950. Computers may overtake (may have overtaken?) the human brain in contemporary society; still, human abilities to think, critique, create, and extrapolate will allow us to put our intelligence to good use, lest computers run the world and leave humanity merely passive.