I Robot book comparison

Rating: 2/10 (4 January 2007)

I Robot
When the book "I Robot", by Isaac Asimov ,was brought to the silver screen in the movie "I Robot", directed by Alex Progas, I was disappointed. When it was transformed into a movie it became an action packed story about detective Spooner. The detective saves the world from becoming enslaved by robots. The book Asimov wrote was an accurate look at what role robots will play in the future.
"I Robot" ,the book, was a collection of nine short stories. The stories are being told to a reporter by Dr. Susan Calivin, a robot psychologist. During a story called "Reason" a robot questions his existence on a solar space station. He locks Michel Donovan and Gregory Powell away and starts a group of robots who worship "The Master". Asimov was looking at a creation of man so complex that it became able to wonder were it came from. In the story, "Runaround" a robot named Speedy is sent to get some selenium from a pool on planet Mercury. Speedy malfunctions on his mission and continually circles the pool of selenium. The malfunction is due to a slight change in laws of the robots mind. The laws of robotics are: 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 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. Law 3 on Speedy was modified so he could better protect himself because Speedy was worth more than a battle ship. Eventually the two humans on the base, Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell, ride older robots out on the planet and get Speedy back. They almost die during there rescue. In "Runaround" Asimov was describing dependency humans will have on there technology in the future. This is his most accurate story of the future. In today's world we have become extremely dependent on our technology. With out our advances in technology there is no way our earth would be able to sustain the vast number of people living on it. Mass food and water production is all run by computers today. Asimov also had some inaccurate thoughts of what the future of robots might entail. Asimov's robots were created by robot engineers but whenever there was a problem with one it would be taken to a robot psychologist. Asimov gave the appearance that no one was quite sure how the brains worked.
In the future robots will not cost as much as a battle ship, as Asimov said in "Runaround". Robots will be cheap and affordable within a few years of their release. Ted Hoff, under Intel, invented the microprocessor in 1970. The first personal computer to make a splash on the market was from IBM. The first IBM PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor, with 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k. The price started at $1,565, nearly $4,000 today. This computer has less memory and power than my calculator, a complete joke by today's standards. The November 2006 "Popular Science" has a laptop computer, made by XO, which cost $130. It could be produced and sold so cheap because it cuts energy use with a new LCD and runs on Linux's free software. I found Alex Progas' movie of "I Robot" to be terrible compared to the book. There were very few similarities of the book and the movie. The main characters had the same names and the laws of the robots were identical. Dr. Susan Calvin was made into a Hollywood doctor. She was young and attractive but the only thing that made her seem smart was when she unnecessarily used extensive vocabulary. The Film was polluted with advertisement particularly for Converse. All the acting throughout the movie was terrible. The one thing "I Robot" did have was impressive action scenes and special effects. In both the book and the movie the robots and humans have a problem of control. Asimov depicts this in his last chapter "The Evitable Conflict" where mistakes are only made when companies don't follow what the robots tells them. To solve this problem the co-ordinator suggests making every one give up there civil rights and obey the machines to prevent further economical problems. Alex proposes that the robots will take over when Vicky, a robot, takes control of the company and tries to protect people from them self by taking away their freedom. The book and movie do tie a similar idea together. People may one day become taken over by there own creations.