where we can both see why Cutie would believe this while understanding
that he shouldn’t. It was the first instance in the book that I really felt like
Asimov was talking about humanity through the lens of something “sub-
human”.
Speaking of parallels and the thinly veiled analysis of human societies and
their beliefs, it seemed as though the entirety of Asimov’s book was just a
look at the way humans deal with things and lie to each other to make these
things okay. “Reason” had a nearly religious aspect to it; the story “Robbie”
dealt with discrimination; ”Runaround” was a story looking at the fear of
death; “Catch that Rabbit” was about what one robot did when no one was
looking; “Liar!” was about lying to save someone’s feelings; “Little Lost
Robot” was both about an identity crisis and the need to feel better than
someone else; “Escape!” was about taking risks to get results that are not
guaranteed; “Evidence” was about individual rights and needing proof to
believe something rather than taking another’s word for it; “The Evitable
Conflict” was about the direction the world is taking and how humans are
never truly in control of it. All of these things look at the way a human
society works while hiding behind the idea of robots. It appears to me as
though this book is a study more of humans and how we function in a single
society rather than a look at the science fiction notion of a world with robots.
This was a fantastic book if you enjoy both the idea of robots and the
underlying theme of what humanity really consists of, which I do. It had
interesting transitions and was a bit strange in the way it had people deal
with problems, but it was well written and undeniably brilliant, which is
surprising considering it was written 70 year ago, but is still relevant. The
situations were well thought out and all had logical solutions for whatever
problem was involved in them. Overall, it’s not a book I would mind reading
again and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a thought provoking, if
not slightly nerdy, book.