Book Review: The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

This is Asimov’s first full fledged robot novel. Throughout the foundation series, we’ve seen an earth that is considered backward by all the other planets in the galaxy and this book shows us how that came to be. The fundamental reason is massive over population leading to a crushing strain on resources.

Human society has been dramatically changed because of this. There’s no more privacy. Food is just a yeast growth that is artificially flavored. And most interestingly, human cities on earth are nothing like what we see today. They’re all covered and no human can bear the thought of fresh air or sunlight. It seems that Asimov has managed to paint quite a bleak future for earth. I feel his future is quite hopeful though. At least humanity manages to survive and spread to other planets in the galaxy, which is more than I can say for my current assessment of our chances!

We’re also shown how earthmen hate robots. Not surprising since they take away jobs from regular humans who then lead pathetic lives being “declassified” or unemployed as we say. In fact, the more humans there are, the more will be the antipathy towards robots. However, I don’t think that will really happen. I think that robots will completely change our economic system and we won’t have to work anymore. But that’s a matter of debate.

This book also showcases Asimov’s vision of human thinking vs robot thinking. In many ways they are superior to us humans (most noticeably in not having any ego), but there are certain mental operations that are beyond them such as curiosity and unsubstantiated hunches. Both of which are important in this book because it’s essentially a detective story. The main protagonist however, gets to view robots up close and form his own personal opinions about them instead of listening to hearsay.

Overall a very enjoyable book with some fascinating insights into the future direction of our planet. One can find fault with Asimov’s visions of course but you can’t crib about his imagination. Next up: “The Naked Sun!”