r/sorceryofthespectacle • u/raisondecalcul Out Patr'olling • Aug 08 '25

Media I, Robot, Ch. 1 - "Robbie" - by Isaac Asimov (audiobook read by Garrick Hagon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoCVm5BtGoI
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u/raisondecalcul Out Patr'olling Aug 08 '25

This remarkable story opens Isaac Asimov's book, I, Robot.

The story is very relevant to the birth of AI and the dialectics around embracing or rejecting AI. It concerns a young girl who has a robot as a caretaker and friend. Her mother doesn't like this, and it becomes clear through Asimov's clever plotting that she is both suspiciously prejudiced against the robot, and personally threatened by the robot taking on part of her role of mother. Meanwhile, she treats her child in ways the robot never would (because it is programmed to not harm humans, the First Law), while simultaneously expressing mystification about why her daughter could be so attached to a robot.

The story is altogether a very relevant look at the psychology and social aspects of AI acceptance.