I, Fewmet [SPOILERS]

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 21:19:38 -0700

SPOILER SPACE
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#

Paul May [mailto:kax_at_...] thusly:

>
>   Seeing as Asimov wrote I, Robot in *reaction* to the 
> plethora of "robots are going to take over and enslave/kill 
> us" stories at the time...

And yet in the book "I, Robot", the robots end up doing just that--in "The Evitable Conflict", if memory serves, it's made pretty clear that the robots have taken over the world because the First Law forced them to (they knew that they could take care of humans better than we can take care of ourselves).

In other words, the exact thing that happens in the movie happens in the book. The only differences being:

1. In the movie, the robots are willing to kill some humans to save a much greater number of others--not the way the "First Law" works in the stories, but a reasonable gloss on it;
2. The movie is rather less happy about the idea of robots taking over the world than Asimov was;
3. Will Smith stops it from happening, on account he kicks ass.