Robot Visions is a collection of robot stories, supplemented with a few essays, by Isaac Asimov. I saw it at my friend Jon’s apartment and, having never actually read any Asimov, borrowed it for a time.

It’s been a lot of fun to read. Asimov is a skilled storyteller and the short story is a quite effective format for building a world such as he does. Each story provides a small glimpse into his vision of what a robot-powered human culture would look like.

Particularly striking was his continual emphasis on the importance and dignity of humanity. Robots are programmed with the Three Laws so that they are not a threat to mankind, keeping them in their intended role as machines and aids to man’s endeavors. Although he does indicate in one of the essays that he is not entirely convinced of man’s inherent superiority over robot, it is refreshing to see human dignity so regarded.

The wide variety of elements which are manifest in the various stories are good. While there is a fair amount of continuity, particularly with some of the core employees of U.S. Robots, each story opens a different window into a strange potential future. Many of the tales are quite clever — in particular, I found “Little Lost Robot” (dealing with a robot that isn’t quite normal), “Runaround” (describing a rather unexpected consequence of the way the three laws interact in a robot’s brain), and “Evidence” (introducing Stephen Byerley — read the story to find more about him) to be quite good and a rather pleasant science fiction experience.

I also find Asimov’s pax machina future world to be an interesting place, and certainly more credible than the utter utopia of the Star Trek earth. In this world, while humanity is fairly unified and in relative peace, they are still people and still act like people. Greed, pride, envy, and fear are still alive and well; people have most definitely not learned to be perfect and don’t seem to have any delusions of such.

My uncle commented to me once that, frequently, science fiction is really more about people and human nature than whatever scientific concepts or gizmos it engages. This is certainly true of Asimov’s stories. Human response to and interaction with robots is a key facet of his writing both in the stories and essays. We watch people use, love, hate, and fear robots, and through that see depicted how man responds to the introduction of new technology and the alteration of his society.

I recommend this book quite readily (though with the warning that some of the characters do indulge in mild profanities). It’s a fairly speedy read, it’s been fun to spend some time ingesting a piece of literature for the shear pleasure of it, and the stories are fantastic.