Based on the Asimov short story collection of the same name, I, Robot explores a society where humanoid robots are everywhere, doing a range of jobs, through a detective who is distrustful of robots due to a tragic accident he survived, but others didn't. As a result, when a murder happens and a robot could be responsible, the detective has to overcome doubt that a robot, required to follow the Three Laws of Robotics, could kill a human.

Another action science fiction film based on Asimov's work, the film is set in a future with many many societal changes, yet still feels incomplete. The movie is almost too clean, another clean utopia containing devoid of nature (except the cat, gotta save the cat). Yet the benefit of that sanitized environment is the way the crime stands out. Everything looks so clean and feels so efficient, you have to wonder whether any crime happens at all. For that reason, the CGI worldbuilding works for the film, though I have to wonder if a future remake with grittier writing and scenes might offer a more believable setting.

Why you should watch this
In 2014, humanoid robots are just reaching affordability at around $2000. If robot development follows any Moore's Law type of arc, the same way computers did and now tablets and phones are developing, robot bodies and software are due to explode in affordability and feature richness in the near future. This means humanoid robots with artificial personalities, though probably not true artificial intelligence, within the next decade could cost just a few hundred dollars. But what does this mean?

It means our world will change quickly as hordes of robots of all shapes an sizes will begin to fill various social niches. Cleaners, stockers, trash collectors, mowers, security, tellers, companions - various robots will begin to offer support in one or more of these areas of human or ecological need. Plus the Internet of Things will offer a system over which these robots will be networked to be more useful as a unit than they could ever be individually.

I, Robot looks at what happens when the system is corrupt and turns the robots into weapons of conflict instead of the useful tools for which they were originally purchased. Though it isn't as deep as some of the other films based on Asimov's forecasts, it is entertaining and provides some interesting scenes showing how robots might be misused in a society where they are accepted as perfectly peaceful.

Topics Covered
Futurists will enjoy the topics explored in the movie, including:

• Paranoia of automated systems
• The danger of placing too much trust in technology
• The threat of centralized systems that see all and control all technology in a setting
• The danger of powerful robots and how powerless humans can be to something able to physically, and mentally, outperform them

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