“Five and Five and One” is a science fiction rock opera suggested to Isaac Asimov by Paul McCartney, but as Asimov noted on the first page of his treatment, “nothing ever came of it because McCartney couldn’t recognize good stuff.”
Robotic Revolutions recently had the opportunity to view the Isaac Asimov Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, where we unearthed Asimov’s original treatment.
“Five and Five and One” is the story of six extra-terrestrial, parasitic, energy beings that crash land their space ship on Earth and are forced to take drastic measures to survive: copying the identity of a rock band, with the goal of brainwashing the entire world. (more…)
Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” is not about robots, but it was admittedly his favorite story.
Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn’t have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer. Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they think I may have written, and tell them where to find it. They don’t remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably “The Last Question”. This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, “Dr. Asimov, there’s a story I think you wrote, whose title I can’t remember—” at which point I interrupted to tell him it was “The Last Question” and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles.
-Isaac Asimov, 1973
“The Last Question” is a story of a computer with exceptional intelligence, the Multivac, presented with a recurring question through many stages of history, “Can entropy ever be reversed?”
Without spoiling the story, “The Last Question” is a wonderful glimpse into the technological singularity towards which we are accelerating.
Isaac Asimov believed that we will live in a future with robots, but tempered his opinion by warning of side-effects. “Will there be difficulties?” he asked. “Undoubtedly. Will there be things we don’t like? Undoubtedly.”
His point was not to steer us away from the impending robotic revolution, but rather to have us think about the ways our lives will change, to prepare our world for a radical paradigm shift. Not just a revolution, but an evolution. (more…)
“It would mark the most important advance in robotics in decades, if we knew how it happened.”
-Isaac Asimov, “Liar!” (1941)
In 1951, Isaac Asimov collected nine of his earliest and most influential stories from Super Science Stories and Astonishing Science Fiction to publish “I, Robot.” This anthology claims its position in the annals of science fiction history for two stories in particular - “Liar!” (1941) and “Runaround” (1942).
“Liar!” is notable for two reasons: it contains the first written use of the word robotics and it foreshadows Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics.”
The “Three Laws of Robotics” are first delineated in “Runaround:”
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Each of Asimov’s robots functions through the assistance of a positronic brain.
In “Reason” the positronic brain is described as “the most complicated mechanism ever created by man…in whose delicately unstable structure were enforced calculated neuronic paths, which imbued each robot with what amounted to a pre-natal education.”
According to a passage in “Runaround,” the positronic brain is hardwired with the “Three Laws of Robotics.” As far as science fiction goes, this is very influential work.
What is interesting to me is that these fictional elements - the positronic brain and the “Three Laws of Robotics” are essentially precursors to the computer chip and software programs.
Today, robots are being massed produced, not ironically, by iRobot.
By the way, the movie “I, Robot” has very, very little to do with Asimov’s writing. The producers bought the rights to the book and forced the “Three Laws” into a hacked-out, derivative script.
If you’ve seen the movie “I, Robot” and you haven’t read Asimov’s stories, do yourself a favor and pick up the book. Better yet, you can read it right here. Let me know which story you like the most:
Welcome to Robotic Revolutions! This week will examine the father of robotics, Isaac Asimov. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Isaac Asimov first penned the word robotics in his 1941 short story “Liar!” Since robotics originated from Asimov, it’s only fair that Robotic Revolutions originates with Asimov.
Isaac Asimov was a prolific author that wrote books in every subject of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy. He made lasting contributions to the science fiction community through his Foundation, Galactic Empire and Robot series, but also wrote non-fiction books about popular science, history, humor and more.
Asimov had the goal of writing 500 books during his life, which he nearly achieved with over 463 titles; however, some bibliographies consider science fiction anthologies including Asimov short stories or books Asimov edited in the total, bringing him well past his goal. According to Asimov, “When asked what I would do if my doctor told me I had only six months to live, I answered, ‘I’ll just type faster.’” (more…)
