I wanted to read this book before I saw the Will Smith movie. According to reviews I read about the movie it was totally butchered and had the opposite moral message that the book did. I haven't seen it and I'm happy that I read the book first.
I've always loved Asimov books. Since we're past the dates that many are set in it's interesting to see how much the push into space was overrated as the direction technology would take. In the book there are space stations and mining colonies on far away asteroids, people have developed hyperspace engines with the help of robots but they still wait for the paperboy to get the news.

The book is broken into chapters of the history of robots told by a robot psychologist. Each chapter is a short story in the world all it's own with the common theme being how robots interact with their pre-programmed laws. The first law of robotics is that a robot cannot harm a human being or through inaction allow a human being to be harmed. The theme of the book is exploration of how a physically superior being, who also is intellectually superior, robots are supercomputers after all, would interact with humans if they had to follow this law.

Robots become ever more sophisticated through the book, it's told over a 60 year period of technology. Eventually everything in the world is run by robots as they become superior but benevolent creations. At it's root it's a story of how we interact with technology and how as technology becomes more advanced it interacts with us.

Looking over the past 60 years and all the marvels and miracles and looking forward at the next 60 years this book is still relevant and thought provoking.

This is a series of stories, it's not one long novel, it has absolutley nothing to do with the dumb film that Will Smith starred in. The only thing the film has in common with the book, is the rules of robotic programming that is it! If you like science fiction, give Asimov a try in this or "The God's Themselves" which is even better.

So, I'm not reviewing the book. You know if you like it. But the delivery was immediate, the condition excellent.

Very good condition, arrived in a timely matter. Super service look forword to buying from you again.

"I, Robot" is a book of short stories by Asimov. Among other things, it presents Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics. The stories show how these robotic laws might affect robot actions. Please note: in today's real world, computers and 'robots' do not use Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics or any reasonably similar limitations. There are good reasons for that. For one thing, no current computer has the equivalent of human judgement to employ such laws in a reasonable, logical, way. In fact, real life digital computing may never be able to work in this manner. Asimov's robots do not, exactly, use digital circuits or the very strict logic of digital computers. His robots are more flexible thinkers than digital logic allows.

Read the book. The stories are interesting and engrossing.

A masterful exploration of artificial intelligence taken to the limit of self consciousness. The book contains the Three Laws of Robotics, never disputed and hardly improvable:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Speculations on whether AI could ever reach a point of sentience - the themes have been explored in sci fi ever since, notably in Star Trek Next Gen through the character of Data. The Caves of Steel and sequel may have been Azimov's best books.

Isaac Asimov is a sci-fi philosopher! Susan Calvin is really cool. If you liked I, Robot, you should take a look at Robot Dreams (another short story collection) and the Elijah Bailey and Daneel Olivaw robot mystery quadroligy (both are also by Asimov).

I read I, Robot because I heard they were making a movie about it, and the summary of plot I read sounded really good. I thought the ethics of murder by a robot would be something interesting to think about, but that storyline was nothing at all like the plot of the book. I was sorely disappointed, although I did like the first story, and then the ones about the robot cult on Venus (?) and the mind-reading robot. The last story was one of the worst ones ever, though.

Great book. The only weak story is the first one. Almost every story in the book has some sort of twist at the end, something that I never would have expected, and all the twists are very simple and have to do with the Three Laws of Robotics. My favorite story is the one about the mind-reading robot.

A destined classic. Asimov is a master of Science Fiction and his robot novels are a beacon of his talent and continue to influence the field of artificial intelligence. Although I can't imagine the possibility, if you're only going to read one, make this it.