Review: the Bicentennial Man

The Bicentennial Man is a collection of short stories by this week’s featured author, Isaac Asimov. The title story is about a robot who is given the name Andrew Martin after the family he works for. Andrew discovers he has extraordinary artistic talents and as the decades pass by Andrew begins to fight for what he believes are his rights; to own money and property and to become emancipated from his owner. After tremendous legal battles, he is finally declared legally human.

This book raises many questions about artificial intelligence which may become more and more relevant as time progresses. If mankind creates an intelligence which becomes superior to his own, should they ever be given freedom and rights? Asimov delivers thought-provoking insight into a potential future challenge.

Featured author - did you know?

Here are some random and totally useless facts about this week’s featured author, Isaac Asimov:

- Asimov died on the 6th April 1992 of heart and kidney failure. When his biography was published ten years later, it was revealed that Asimov had been living with HIV contracted from a blood transfusion performed during his December 1983 triple-bypass surgery.

- The famous and celebrated writer, whose science-fiction novels often described space travel, himself had an irrational fear of flying, which severely limited his ability to travel throughout most of his life.

- Asimov was a teetotaler in his later years.

- He was completely inept at any activity that required motor skills – he never learned to swim or ride a bicycle.

- When he was in the army as a young man he achieved the highest score in his company’s intelligence test, although he got the lowest score in the physical-conditioning test.

Featured Author Quotation - Isaac Asimov

[In response to this question by Bill Moyers: What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate?] "It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies."

- Interview by Bill Moyers on A World Of Ideas.

This week's featured author - Isaac Asimov

One of the most famous science-fiction authors of all time, Isaac Asimov was a prolific writer, penning hundreds of books in a wide variety of different categories as well as numerous short stories. Asimov was also a professor of biochemistry, writing a great many popular science text books and other works of non-fiction.

His most popular science-fiction works included the spectacular Foundation, Robot and Empire series, altogether spanning 15 novels and dozens of short stories. Asimov was known for his fascination with the relationship between man and machine, which spawned countless short stories and novels on the subject of robots and the exploration of the recurring concept of the Laws of Robotics throughout a number of his science-fiction works. He is responsible for coining the word robotics, as well as the less widely used positronic and psychohistory.

Asimov’s writing is strangely stark, with minimal emphasis on main characters or settings and a lack of philosophical ramblings. This skin-and-bones style ensured Asimov wrote solely on the strength of the actual plot and not on florid frills.
Asimov’s scientific theories are so profound that one cannot help but be carried away by the sheer invincibility and solidity of his storylines.

Isaac Asimov died in New York, on the 6th of April 1992 at the age of 72, leaving behind a legacy that can scarcely be challenged by contemporary writers.