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Probably, Isaac Asimov is still the top Science Fiction writer of all times. What he wrote about the ethics of robotics — in fact about Artificial Intelligence, but that expression didn’t exist when he wrote about it — is still very much to the point. Perhaps even more important are his sociological and psychological observations leading to his famed psychohistory in the Foundation series. His writing is permeated with the insight that personality is shaped by society, not the other way around. In these times of lockdown because of the COVID “pandemic” The Naked Sun (1957) is very instructive for where we are heading. The Naked Sun is the second detective in the “Eliah Baley” series that started with The Caves of Steel.
In an unspecified future, mankind has developed intelligent robots and star-travel. The Earth is overpopulated. Everyone lives in caves of steel: a gigantic closed structure covering most of the Earth with virtually no privacy. Even lavatories are shared by multiple families. The surface of the structure and the unbuilt parts that are left are used for food production. In the caves robots are scarce and loathed. They work the fields or foodplants on the surface autonomously. No one goes outside any more, in fact one is even afraid of looking outside. |