I, Robot Themes

I, Robot Themes

Robots as People / Robots as Machines

This is one of several themes explored in most, if not all, the short stories in this book, not only in terms of how the human characters treat the robots but also in terms of how the reader is intended to perceive them. Right from the beginning, the writing endows the robots with very human qualities, but also right from the beginning certain characters treat robots as nothing more than machine. Mrs. Weston, Donovan, Lanning and Bogert, Kallner - they all share the relatively limited perspective that, because robots are manufactured, they are to be related to only on a certain level.

Interestingly, and perhaps paradoxically, this perspective is shared by Susan Calvin, the self-defined "robot psychologist" who devotes her life to understanding how the robot mind works, but does so on purely logical terms, defining the robots' "human" qualities as manifestations of the Three Laws. Other characters, principally Gloria...
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