I, Robot

''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book for stand-alone (single issue / special edition) publication by Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies. The stories are woven together by a framing narrative in which the fictional Dr. Susan Calvin tells each story to a reporter (who serves as the narrator) in the 21st century. Although the stories can be read separately, they share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality, and when combined they tell a larger story of Asimov's fictional history of robotics.

Several of the stories feature the character of Dr. Calvin, chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots. Upon their publication in this collection, Asimov wrote a framing sequence presenting the stories as Calvin's reminiscences during an interview with her about her life's work, chiefly concerned with aberrant behaviour of robots and the use of "robopsychology" to sort out what is happening in their positronic brain. The book also contains the short story in which Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics first appear, which had large influence on later science fiction and had impact on thought on ethics of artificial intelligence as well. Other characters that appear in these short stories are Powell and Donovan, a field-testing team which locates flaws in USRMM's prototype models.

The collection shares a title with the then recent short story "I, Robot" (1939) by Eando Binder (pseudonym of Earl and Otto Binder), which greatly influenced Asimov. Asimov had wanted to call his collection ''Mind and Iron'' and objected when the publisher made the title the same as Binder's. In his introduction to the story in ''Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories'' (1979), Asimov wrote:

Contents

# "Introduction" (the initial portion of the framing story or linking text)
# "Robbie" (1940, 1950)
# " Runaround" (1942), novelette
# "Reason" (1941)
# "Catch That Rabbit" (1944)
# " Liar!" (1941)
# "Little Lost Robot" (1947), novelette
# "Escape!" (1945)
# "Evidence" (1946), novelette
# "The Evitable Conflict" (1950), novelette

Reception

''The New York Times'' described ''I, Robot'' as "an exciting science thriller hichcould be fun for those whose nerves are not already made raw by the potentialities of the atomic age".

Describing it as "continuously fascinating", Groff Conklin "unreservedly recommended" the book.

P. Schuyler Miller recommended the collection: "For puzzle situations, for humor, for warm character, ndfor most of the values of plain good writing."

Dramatic adaptations

Television

At least three of the short stories from ''I, Robot'' have been adapted for television. The first was a 1962 episode of '' Out of this World'' hosted by Boris Karloff called "Little Lost Robot" with Maxine Audley as Susan Calvin. Two short stories from the collection were made into episodes of ''Out of the Unknown'': "The Prophet" (1967), based on "Reason"; and " Liar!" (1969). Both episodes were wiped by the BBC
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