"Caliban" by Roger McBride Allen

I recently stumbled upon a novel that I read for the last time nearly thirty years ago. Isaac Asimov’s Caliban is a story that takes place in his robot storyline, written after his death. The fascinating thing about all of the Robot stories is that they play with the philosophical and ethical implications of a series of “Laws” that Asimov came up with in his first short stories:

“A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

“A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.”

“A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”

Caliban is the first of a trilogy of novels, each dealing with one of the laws. It is also, like many of Asimov’s robot stories, a mystery. As far as the mystery goes, this novel is well done. It keeps the reader guessing right up until the end; but is not a cheat of any sort.

But the real draw to this book is how well it speaks to our world today, one that didn’t really apply as well 30 years ago when it was written. You couldn’t call it prophetic, as the robots of the far-future science fiction world are far beyond our “smart” devices. That said, the society built and dependent upon such tools is where we are quickly headed, and the warnings contained in Caliban are ones worth heeding.