The Bicentennial Man

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"The Bicentennial Man" is a novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. The story formed the basis of the novel The Positronic Man (1993), co-written with Robert Silverberg, and the 1999 box office flop Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams.

The story was originally written for the 1976 American bicentennial. Asimov was one of several authors commissioned to write a story revolving around the phrase "the bicentennial man", which the writers were to interpret in whatever way they chose. The plan was for the stories to be published as an anthology, but this fell through. The novella instead was featured in Asimov's own short story collection, The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories. It is also included in The Complete Robot collection and Robot Visions.

Story

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is told from the perspective of Andrew (later known as Andrew Martin), an NDR-series robot owned by the Martin family, a departure from the usual practice by US Robots of leasing robots. Andrew begins to display sentient characteristics, such as creativity, traditionally the province of humans. He is taken off his mundane household duties, for which he was intended, and allowed to pursue his creativity, making a fortune by selling his creations.

Andrew seeks legal protection stemming from his initial creative output and eventual full recognition as a human, by gradually replacing his robotic components with organic ones, and citing the process as a transformation from robot to human. Succeeding generations of the Martin family assist him in his quest for humanity but each is limited to what degree they are prepared to acknowledge Andrew's humanity.

In The Positronic Man the trends of fictional robotics in Asimov's Robot Series (as outlined in the book I, Robot) are detailed as background events, with an indication that they are influenced by Andrew's story. No more robots in Andrew's line are developed. There is also a movement towards centralized processing, including centralized control of robots, which would avoid any more self-reflecting robots such as Andrew.

Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to "decay", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being. This event takes place on the two-hundredth anniversary of his creation, hence the title.

Quotes

[Teaching Andrew to tell jokes]

Sir: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Andrew: One does not know, sir, possibly a predator was behind the chicken, or possibly there was a female chicken on the other side of the road, if it's a male chicken. Possibly a food source, or depending on the season it might be migrating. One hopes there's no traffic.

Sir: To get to the other side.

Andrew: To get to the other side. Ah, why is that funny?

Preceded by:	Series:	Followed by:
Robot Dreams	Robot Series Foundation Series	Mother Earth

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