The Bicentennial Man

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For the theatrical film, see Bicentennial Man (film).

"The Bicentennial Man" is a novella by Isaac Asimov. The story formed the basis of the novel The Positronic Man (1993), co-written with Robert Silverberg, and the 1999 movie Bicentennial Man, which starred Robin Williams. It is a part of Asimov's Robot Series. 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.

The story tells of Andrew (later known as Andrew Martin), an NDR-series robot that 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. The robot seeks legal protection stemming from his initial creative output and eventually 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 (who had originally owned him) assist him in his goal, but each is limited to what degree they are prepared to acknowledge Andrew's humanity.

In this story, the robot is actually owned by the Martin family, a departure from the usual practice by US Robots of leasing robots.

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, he is declared a human being. This event takes place on the two-hundredth anniversary of his creation, hence the title.

The book was later adapted as a film starring Robin Williams.

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?

See also

• Bicentennial Man (film)

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