I am looking for science fiction novels, short stories, or even movies that depict robots replacing human labor.
I am aware of
Isaac Asimov’s I Robot, The Caves of Steel, etc…
Does anyone know other good ones?
Thanks!
I am looking for science fiction novels, short stories, or even movies that depict robots replacing human labor.
I am aware of
Isaac Asimov’s I Robot, The Caves of Steel, etc…
Does anyone know other good ones?
Thanks!
Blade Runner was based on a short story. Google for author’s name.
The word “robot” seems to have come from the Czech short story “Opilec,” written by Josef Capec in 1917. Karel Capek wrote a play in 1920 called “R.U.R.” which stood for “Rosum’s{?} Universal Robots.” The term “robot” is first cited in print in English in 1922 in the N.Y. Times referring to the RUR play.
The robots in the play replaced human work.
Star Wars.
“With Folded Hands” by Jack Williamson.
Blade Runner was based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, by Philip K Dick.
The entire plot of “The Door Into Summer” by Robert Heinlein revolves around an engineer who designs robots that take over mundane human labor such as cleaning windows and floors.
“The Midas Plague” by Frederick Pohl, in which the fac that robts have been s efficient in running things turns out to be a problem.
The Humanids is a full-length novel sequel to Jack Williamson’s story “With Folded Hands”
A lot of Asimov’s Robot novels and stories, of coure.
I’m sure there were plenty of short stories and novelettes from the 1950s where this was the case, but I can’t recall any right now.
The Matrix?
One of the Animatrix shorts does, at least.
Say, do any of these stories mention what’s done with the people who’d been doing the scutwork before, but were now made obsolete by robot labor?
Ranchoth
(“Soylent Green,” maybe?_
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut (sp?) is about machines replacing human labor and the (negative) effects on society. It’s an excellent read.
Iain Banks’ Culture novels are all set in a society where intelligent AIs provide for all food clothing and shelter and essentially run things for humans, who are all born with the kind of wealth at their disposal that our current millionaires can only dream of. All the billions of them.
Nancy Kress’ Beggars in Spain deals with ordinary humans displaced by advances in AI and automation.
IIRC, in Asimovs’ Caves of Steel series, all the basic necessities of citizens are taken care of, whether they work or not.
The Ringworld series is set in a society in which work seems to be more voluntary than not.
The Marching Morons posits a society whose members are too stupid to do anything for themselves, hence must be spoon -fed all they need by society.
Also, robots and ships are considered sentient beings and enjoy the same benefits and luxury humans do, once they serve briefly in the occupation they were created for.
Yeah - in the Heinlein novel, they don’t have to do that crappy work anymore. Is it really such a bad thing that people might not have to wash windows and floors any more?
Most jobs that would be taken over by automation are the types of rote mechanical work that isn’t all that satisfying for humans to do.
As for what those people would do… I dunno. What did the 80% of the population do when mechanization allowed them to quit farming?
Recently, David Brin’s Kiln People posited a world where copies of individuals are made that last a day or so and can be commanded to perform tasks from the mundane to the complex.
It left people with loads of extra time and no jobs. So what they called the ‘purple’ wage (a form of welfare) provided for most peoples needs.
he he Beserkers. Machines that kill organic life.
It’s not a bad thing at all, in principal. However, if you’re just an uneducated 45-year old schnook who’s been a janitor or a factory laborer all your life, what are you going to do for work when your job disappears?
Another Philip Dick short story looks at automated manufacturing in the aftermath of a world war.
All goods are produced in automated factories (infact I think the name of the story is Autofac??) and delivered to human communities. The humans have no control over these factories other than to order what they want. And I’ll leave it there incase this turns into a spoiler.
The Jetsons