The upside of having time has got to be reading! Yes - I say that because I'm biased towards books. It's the only way to enjoy the company of great thinkers, dreamers, lovers, artists, scientists - all at the same time.
Why do I say this? It's because I just finished reading I, Robot.
Now I have never been attracted to Science Fiction as a genre. Neither in books, nor in movies. Always found it too taxing on my brain. Or maybe my heart. Or so I assumed. It was The Husband who made me watch the movie. So I guess, I owe this piece to him.
Anyway - through the drama in the movie, peeks the concept of evolution of robotic and robots themselves, whose.. well "logic is undeniable". Strictly speaking for myself - though it was initially the drama which made the movie palatable; the actual thrill came from how the evolution theory was built up in the movie.
So now that I had the time and I had already seen the movie, I thought I'd read the book and be done with it.
Let me come to the book. For starters, the movie doesn't exactly follow the story line in the book. There aren't many similarities in the book apart from the name of the corporation - USR, and some characters - Dr Alfred Lanning, Robertson and of course Dr Susan Calvin - who, by the way is the real rock star at USR and certainly does not need a paranoid detective Spooner to deduce any mysteries where robots are involved. No offense to Will Smith or his fans, but it's a stupid, sexist reason to have his character at all in the movie.
The book is a collection of short stories rather than a novel. Structured as a memoir, each chapter is a reminiscence of a mishap at USR. The evolution of robots is evident in the apparent malfunction that is being described. From an emotional, but non verbal mechanical companion to a complicated device that has complete control of the earth. As the capabilities of the robots grow, so does the overlap on the human domains. Eventually, everything that a human being could be deemed capable of doing, could be achieved by the robot, only more efficiently.
And that is what is so captivating about the book. The things that robots are shown to have achieved. From being a companion nurse, to mining on planet Mercury, to Interstellar travel! Top that with human actions like mind reading, lying (albeit to prevent hurt), impersonating, getting confused (and twiddling fingers) and even forming a religious cult, and you find yourself wondering how long before it actually comes true. Because however dramatic it may seem, the cold, hard logic behind it is - again - undeniable.
I feel almost sad going back to the regular, human fiction now. A glimpse of a higher world can be cruel. Well, at least I know whom to blame! ;-)
Read more books. It's not "only words".
Cheers!
~K.
ps: Apparently, these stories were written between 1940 - 1950. While the world was split between the bullies and the bullied, this young lad in his 20's clearly had better things to do.
Ah well - thank god for Geniuses!
