Review of "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov

Do you think robot which is totally different to us can be friend? Aren’t you scared of robots in the future? In one of the famous robot books, ‘I, robot’ is published in the 1940s by Isaac Asimov. There are 9 different stories about robot and first chapter story, “Robbie” has three different themes. It shows one of the family, Gloria’s family and It shows conflict between Gloria and her mom, Mrs. Grace about Gloria’s best friend robot, Robbie.

In this book, it shows two completely different themes for robot. One is fear of robot and another one is convenient of robot. Through these two completely different themes, people can think about both of sides. There are three different themes that are relevant to the time we are living now. People cannot trust robots, robots are helpful and useful to human's life, and relation between human and robot. In 'I, robot' book, it shows that human such as Gloria’s mom, Mrs. Weston is fear for robots. Mrs. Weston did not like Gloria's best friend, robot, Robbie. Her mom was scared that what if Robbie hurts Gloria. She was also worried that what if Robbie betray human and hurt them. Even though Robbie obeyed to host, and follow them well, Mrs. Weston still could not trust Robbie because Robbie was just a machine that might control over human in the future. In the book, Gloria’s mom, Mrs. Weston says: “I won’t have my daughter entrusted to a machine -- and I don’t care how clever it is. It has no soul, and no one knows what it may be thinking. A child just isn’t made to be guarded by a thing of metal.” Weston frowned. “But something might go wrong. Some- some-” Mrs. Weston was a bit hazy about the insides of a robot, “some little jigger will come loose, and the awful thing will go berserk and- and-”. Through these sentences, it expressed that Mrs. Weston’s feeling about Robbie and it also showed much she hated Robbie.

According to BBC news, more than 50 Al researchers from 30 countries signed a letter which concern about developing artificial stuff such as killer robots for weapons. Shin Sung- Chul, president of the Korea Avanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist), said: “I reaffirm once again that Kaist will not conduct any research activities counter to human dignity including autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control.” more than 20 countries have already called for a total ban on killer robots. As people know, technology moves toward quickly which means human lose their power. When machine get power, they may control over like what Gloria’s mom thoughts. Through developing machine such as killer robot, according to CNBC news some analysist expect that robots may replace 800 million workers by 2030.

Robots are useful and helpful to human. Robots are made for helping people and make human more convenient. Robbie was the one which was household of Gloria’s family. Even though Robbie was just a machine, Robbie stayed beside Gloria and helped with household. Even though Gloria's mom did not want Robbie to stay at home, Robbie stayed beside Gloria and did his job, household. In the book, Robbie did (page 16): “Robbie!” Her shriek pierced the air, and one of the robots about the table faltered and dropped the tool he was holding. Gloria went almost mad with joy. Squeezing through the railing before either parent could stop her, she dropped lightly to the floor a few feet below, and ran toward her Robbie, arms waving and hair flying. Even though there were three adults, no one could act immediately to save Gloria. Robbie was the only one who could that which means even though it’s just a machine, it may save someone’s life. Even though some countries are banding robot systems, there are still lots of countries that develop robot system. Japan is a world leader in the development of robots such as Jinkou Chihou and Safety Crawler. These are robots that can save human and help human. Japan is focusing on nursing and social care; and problematic attitudes towards sexuality too. Also, Japan is a country that happens lots of disaster such as earthquake, flood, and typhoon. Robots could scour disaster, enter burning building or find poisonous chemicals from there. So that through developing robots, it saves human’s lives and increasing the effectiveness. For example, Safety Crawler robot carries a person up to 250 pounds which is around 113 kg. It helps transport people hurt after disaster like earthquake. Human and robot are best friend in this book.

In ‘I, Robot’ book, Gloria call Robbie a friend, but then Robbie is programmed to be a good nursemaid not being friend with human. Human and robots are completely different because robot is just a machine that cannot communicate with human. In the book, it says: “He was not no machine!” screamed Gloria, fiercely and ungrammatically. “He was a person just like you and me and he was my friend. I want him back. Oh, Mamma, I want him back.” It shows that even though human cannot communicate with robots, they can share emotions each other. No matter what is made of, attachment is more important. Also, it never can change with other things because Robbie was valuable thing to Gloria. When Gloria’s mom bought her a cute dog, she did not like it because it wasn’t Robbie.

In this book, ‘I, Robot’, lots of things are going on. There are 9 different chapters. It gives lots of lessons to us. There are three themes that relevant to our live now. People are fear of robot because they might control over human in the future, robots are helpful, useful, and saver human’s life, and relation between human robots are strong and deep relationship. This book is fresh because robot was not that developed in 20centuary but then this book is written in 20 centuries with three rules for robots. Because it shows two completely different themes, people could think about both of sides. Some people who were thinking that robot is bad, might change their opinion through this book. the other way, people who support developing robot, might not think robot in positive way. There is no answer for which one is good, and which is bad. Everyone has different opinion so that they can have different opinion. This book is for those people.