I was shocked the other day to realize that a couple of the early stories in I, Robot are set in 2015. And yet in Azimov’s fictional 2015, humans have energy harvesting and beaming space stations, can visit other planets in our solar system, and, not to mention, HAVE ROBOTS!!! I’m reliving my “Where’s my Hoverboard?” depression of not too long ago, which on the one hand points to the problem of setting a story in the future, when eventually the future is sure to arrive. On the other hand, I have to respect the choice to go out on a limb and predict that this is what the future may be like, even if the prediction is for over 70 years into the future, and you may not live to see it. And still, despite my yearning for awesome tech, nearly all of the robot stories seem to develop unforeseen problems that can come from advanced technology, so that in the end, the machines might just fulfill one of the deepest fears of sci-fi, when they take over the world. At least when Azimov’s machines take over though, we can rest assured that they’ll follow the first law and have our best interests at heart.
Jared Abraham 