title: Robot Visions
author:  Isaac Asimov 
description: "This collection offers 18 stories about robots as well as brief essays in which Asimov comments on robots in fiction, the Frankenstein complex, his famous Three Laws and the development of actual robots. ``The earliest tales here, written from 1940 to 1960, remain among the most-loved in the field," <b>Publishers Weekly</b>
zlib_text: ISAAC ASIMOV
  Foundation Series 4: Robot Visions
  Introduction:
  The Robot Chronicles What is a robot? We might define it most briefly and
  comprehensively as "an artificial object that resembles a human being."
  When we think of resemblance, we think of it, first, in terms of appearance. A
  robot looks like a human being.
  It could, for instance, be covered with a soft material that resembles human
  skin. It could have hair, and eyes, and a voice, and all the features and
  appurtenances of a human being, so that it would, as far as outward appearance
  is concerned, be indistinguishable from a human being.
  This, however, is not really essential. In fact, the robot, as it appears in
  science fiction, is almost always constructed of metal, and has only a
  stylized resemblance to a human being.
  Suppose, then, we forget about appearance and consider only what it can do. We
  think of robots as capable of performing tasks more rapidly or more
  efficiently than human beings. But in that case any machine is