The Caves of Steel
by Isaac Asimov
Rating: 2.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2026-04-18
Kind of just a generic murder mystery. Did not enjoy as much as I, Robot. In the end, I had to read the wikipedia summary to keep my interest, then got a little bit of enjoyment noticing the clues as I went.
Kind of funny premise: a robot partner on the case. If the robot succeeds, the detective will be replaced. If it fails we’re in big trouble so we’re desperate for it to succeed. Just like adopting AI in my programming job right now.
Very wrong predictions about the future. Like many people in his era, Isamov predicted overpopulation. “You can’t spread eight billion people over earth in little domes.” - wrong. Turns out we can house and feed that many people, but now we’re facing collapsing birth rates.
One thing it got right: there’s a big push to get humanoid robots working because they can operate all existing environments meant for humans.