Riles Reads: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

I, robot by Isaac Asimov is an early work of science fiction centering the relationship between robots, humans, and the morality therein. (Read more about it on wikipedia here.) Y'all may have seen the movie starring Will Smith. I haven't, but i've heard good things.

I've read a lot more fantasy than science fiction, but I've wanted to dive more into the science fiction world, and what better place to start than one of the most famous and prolific science fiction writers: Isaac Asimov? (Well, actually the answer to that question is Octavia Butler, but I found Asimov first in the used book store, so here we are. Octavia, I'm coming for you.)

In a world that is increasingly automated and technically connected, I'm very interested in how we choose to moralize about these connections. I think it's going to be a supremely important ethical question, and one that I hope we choose to address together before it feels like it's Too Late. So I appreciate works of fiction that help bring these questions to us in digestible ways, so we can start to consider what it might mean, for instance, for AI to feel or think or love. What it might mean for AI to be an integrated part of our society.  

I, robot grapples with these deep questions of morality while having witty banter and interesting descriptions of the world -- all perfect poetry fodder. I really enjoy the direct language and big questions that I can get from these pages. It also helps that the copy I have has a pretty unique font, so I like visually how it pairs with lines from other works. And as an artist who works in tech, I always really enjoy combining these two parts of my life and using technical-type material for poems.

I still have more than half this book to cut, so you'll be seeing phrases from this for a while 👀

Click here to see all the art currently available that has been made from this book.

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