Here is a reference list of landmarks in fiction about people and technology, many of which are centered around robots. You may browse through it now, or come back later.
| 1726 | Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels (Academy of Lagado: satirized inventors and anticipated machine-produced literature) |
| 1818 | Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (novel). Sometimes called the first science fiction novel |
| 1872 | Samuel Butler: Erewhon (novel): satirical anti-technological utopia |
| 1888 | Edward Bellamy: Looking Backwards (novel): naive but popular utopia in which
society seen as a giant factory |
| 1890 | William Morris: News From Nowhere (novel): pastoral utopia |
| 1893 | Ambrose Bierce: 'Moxon's Master' (story): artificial chess-player kills its maker |
| 1905 | H. G. Wells: A Modern Utopia (novel): optimistic view of technologically-dependent society |
| 1909 | E. M. Forster: 'The Machine Stops' (story/novella). First technological dystopia, highlighting over-dependence on machines |
| 1920 | Yevgeny Zamiatin: We (novel), (US translation 1924): dystopian vision of society in which people treated like machines |
| 1921 | Karel Capek: R.U.R. [Rossum's Universal Robots] (Czech play): creation of robots (actually androids) which develop consciousness but satire on treating people like machines |
| 1926 | Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories (magazine) |
| Fritz Lang: Metropolis (film): regimented society with people dwarfed by machines |
| 1930 | Miles J. Breuer: 'Paradise and Iron' (story): mechanical brain coordinating technological utopia turns into tyrant |
| Laurence Manning & Fletcher Pratt: 'City of the Living Dead' (story): machines simulate real experience for people
|
| 1931 | Frankenstein (film) with Boris Karloff: nothing like novel but established mad scientist |
| 1932 | Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (novel): dystopian rejection of technological 'progress' |
| 1933 | H. G. Wells: The Shape of Things to Come (novel). Last major technologically utopian novel (film 1936) |
| 1934 | J. Storer Clouston: Button Brains (novel): mistaken identity (robot/human) |
| 1934 | Harl Vincent: 'Rex' (story): robot Rex takes over the world but commits suicide |
| 1936 | Modern Times (film): Charlie Chaplin trying to adapt to the discipline of the machine |
| 1937 | John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding (Stories of) Science Fiction, or ASF (US science fiction magazine) |
| 1939 | The Son of Frankenstein (film) |
| 1940 | Isaac Asimov: 'Robbie' (story): amiable robot saves child's life |
| 1941 | Isaac Asimov: 'Reason' (story): robot becomes curious about own existence |
| 1942 | First appearance of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:
- A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human
being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the First or Second Law.
|
| 1943 | Robert Bloch: 'It Happened Tomorrow' (story): over-dependence on technology |
| 1944 | Theodore Sturgeon: 'Killdozer' (story): parable about machines acting independently of human control |
| 1945 | [DROPPING OF ATOM BOMB] |
| 1946 | [FIRST ELECTRONIC COMPUTER: ENIAC] |
| Isaac Asimov: 'Evidence' (story): robot simulates human |
| Murray Leinster (as Will F. Jenkins): 'A Logic Named Joe' (story): over-dependence on technology |
| 1947 | Isaac Asimov: 'Little Lost Robot' (story): robot lacks humour |
| Jack Williamson: 'With Folded Hands' (story): robots prepared to use lobotomies to 'protect' human beings |
| 1949 | George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (novel): dystopia in which technology is used repressively |
| 1950 | Isaac Asimov: 'The Evitable Conflict' (story): optimistic vision of computer-controlled world government |
| Clifford D. Simak: 'Skirmish' (story): machines revolt |
| Kurt Vonnegut: 'EPICAC' (story): computer produces poetry |
| 1951 | [FIRST COMMERCIAL COMPUTER - UNIVAC] |
| Isaac Asimov: 'The Fun They Had' (story): mechanical teacher |
| Isaac Asimov: 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' (story): mistaken identity (robot/human) |
| Lord Dunsany: The Last Revolution (novel): revolution of the machines |
| C. M. Kornbluth: 'With These Hands' (story): mechanical sculpture |
| A. E. van Vogt: 'Fulfilment' (story): artificial 'Brain' has developed consciousness and self-determination |
| 1952 | Walter Miller: 'Dumb Waiter' (story): we fail to understand and control our tools
Kurt Vonnegut: Player Piano (novel): dystopian vision of automation |
| 1953 | Poul Anderson: 'Sam Hall' (story): technology used for state surveillance
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (novel, filmed 1966): dystopia in which technology is used repressively
Arthur C. Clarke: 'The Nine Billion Names of God' (story): computer ends everything
Philip K Dick: 'Second Variety' (story): robot out of control
Philip K Dick: 'Imposter' (story): mistaken identity (robot/human)
Fritz Leiber: 'Bad Day for Sales' (story): blindness of technological systems |
| 1954 | Isaac Asimov: 'Caves of Steel' (story)
Fredric Brown (1954): 'The Answer' (story): Computer as God
Frederick Pohl: 'The Midas Plague' (story): blindness of technological systems |
| 1955 | Isaac Asimov: 'Risk' (story): robot test-pilot of spaceship has to be replaced by a human being
Robert Bloch: 'Comfort Me, My Robot' (story): mistaken identity (robot/human)
Philip K. Dick: 'Autofac' (story): machines can self-reproduce
Walter Miller: 'The Darfsteller' (story): actor made redundant by robot theatre; mistaken identity (robot/human) |
