Welcome to Litsy!

I've never been one for physical activity, especially if it's to a practical end, so to relieve me from the tedium of mowing the lawn, we got a robomower!
In best Asimovian tradition, he's been anthropomorphised, and named Ian, after letters in his serial number. 🤖
I can take no credit for setting it up, which my practically-minded son kindly did when he visited yesterday.
Book and a glass of wine in the late evening sun? Don't mind if I do 😊

This collection of nine short stories published in 1950 is extraordinary with its vision of a future with robots. Each story could stand alone but they collectively tell a larger story. The famous “Three Laws of Robotics” first appears here. Really interesting and well-thought out. Hard to believe that this was written well before artificial intelligence was developed. Bravo!

A fun novelisation of the 1966 movie by Asimov, who does what he can within the scifi premise to include realistic science as problems to be solved by the crew of scientists and technicians, miniaturised in a nuclear-powered submarine and injected into the bloodstream of a defecting physicist with an inoperable brain tumour to save his life and the knowledge he has in order to maintain a cold war stalemate.
👇🏼

I love a "micronauts" story, and I guess this is one of the most famous (perhaps alongside Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man", oh, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, oh, and Inner Space, ok there's loads!). The trope is ancient, though, being found in folklore tales such as Tom Thumb.
The front cover of my edition (1966 first UK edition, for what that's worth) is slightly boring, but I like the back cover Technicolour movie still.

For me, Asimovs Robot stories sit comfortably in a unique stasis between its 1950s style, dialect & atomic age paranoia, & the speculative, future worlds in which they‘re set. It‘s kind of simultaneously antiquated & futuristic at the same time. The Foundation Trilogy doesn‘t always work the same way. It‘s more severely & noticeably trapped in its old attitudes & kind of ages badly in comparison. But the yarns are ripping & I enjoyed the journey

It's been a while since I've done a #192025 update. These are the slots I've filled, in the past few months. I've completed 75 of the 106 prompts!
@Librarybelle

My husband & I finally finished I, Robot on our beach trip. He liked it better than I did, and we liked different things. I liked the stories with more action, like Liar, and he liked the ones with a lot of philosophy, like Evitable Conflict (which I thought was too long.) We started The Masquerades of Spring on our way back. I read How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove back (ebook) and listened to The Maidens on my #audiowalk.

Catching up on reviews.😬
4⭐️s
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Can‘t wait to read more of Asimov‘s Robot series. It‘s more of a collection of short stories or even thought experiments. My favorite of them all was “Liar”. It didn‘t end up how I thought it was going to at first. The progression through the stories was nice, it kept them all connected. It definitely makes you think about the future of humanity and how it‘s interlinked with AI.
#ClassicLSFBC

Besides the usual problem with Asimov (the only meaningful female character is still the one responsible for making tea and stew for men) the middle section is flabby and massively expositional/dialogue heavy. This is a shame because the previous book, despite its demoded aspects, is an enjoyable story. It‘s not all bad, though, but I see now why I‘ve never read past this part of the trilogy. However, I‘m aiming to fix that as soon as TBR permits

I enjoyed rereading this classic sci-fi collection of stories with #ClassicLSFBC. In terms of the ethical issues surrounding AI, I found that the questions/ideas have held up surprisingly well, as we're still working through those issues today.
@RamsFan1963 @Ruthiella

#192025 #1950 @Librarybelle
#gottacatchemall @PuddleJumper (prompt 71, Rookidee: Short story or novella)