Futuristic Technologies in Asimov’s Science Fiction Stories

Isaac Asimov has advocated the idea that science fiction is a flavour that can be applied to any genre of fiction. The two novels that are used for this term paper; “The Naked Sun” and “The Robots of Dawn” are in keeping with this idea. The two stories are essentially whodunit stories, with several futuristic technologies like positronic robots and hyperspace travel blended into it. This term paper mainly focuses on identifying the futuristic technology in Isaac Asimov’s science fiction stories. It would focus on how such futuristic technology stories, which take place in a world completely unfamiliar to the reader, fit into models of classification described by Tzvetan Todorov and Arthur Asa Berger. In this term paper, there would also be an attempt to do analyse how the notion of ‘crime and punishment’ is handled differently in these stories, and also to see how elements of science fiction and futuristic technologies fit into the genre of detective fiction. The term paper also contains a brief character analysis of the Futuristic technologies by detectives in the two stories.

futuristic technologies to perform their task. The two novels are set in the same universe as Asimov's former short story series I, Robot, although the former is set in a period around two thousand years in the future. As Asimov writes in the introduction to The Naked Sun, it was his Horace Gold, the editor of Galaxy, who suggested Asimov to write a robot novel following the success of his short stories featuring positronic robots. Though Gold's original suggestion was to write a novel with a sociological theme, set in an overpopulated world in which robots were taking over jobs, Asimov was able to successfully merge this theme into a thriller futuristic technologies story. In the introduction to Asimov's Mysteries, he writes that science fiction shouldn't be classified as a member of the group of specialised literatures, but that it is a literary response to scientific change in which that "science fiction includes everything". John Campbell, one of Asimov's first publishers, however, had told him that a science fiction mystery story was a contradiction in terms, and that advances in technologies could be used to get detectives out of their difficulties unfairly. As Asimov puts it well in the introduction to Asimov's Mysteries, "the detective could say, 'But as you know, Watson, ever since 2175, when all Spaniards learned to speak French, Spanish has been a dead language.
How came Juan Lopez and to speak those significant words in Spanish!' Or else, he could have his detective whip out an odd device and say, 'As you know that Watson, my pocket-frannistan is perfectly efficent of detecting the hidden jewel in a juncture.' " But Asimov disputes that even ordinary mystery writers could be just as unfair to the readers, as they could voluntary hide a necessary cue or introduce characters from nowhere. So the same rules could be applied to science fiction mysteries: you don't invent new devices on the Futuractic technology should only make use of facts known to the reader. The two novels follows these rules really well and are excellent futuristic technologies stories that have elements of science fiction nicely blended into them. Setting: The two novels are set in a futuristic universe, two thousand years in the future.
Advanced positronic robots are common and hyperspace travel has been invented, and with the help of these, humans have colonized fifty planets relative closer to the Earth (known as 'Spacer worlds'). By heavily depending on robot labor and controlling the human population, the Spacer worlds are rich and powerful compared to the overpopulated Earth where humans are prejudiced against the use of robots. The power disparity and differences in lifestyle between the Spacers and earthmen play a major role in all two novels.
"The Naked Sun" is set in the Spacer world of Solaria, that is very different from the futuristic Earth. The planet has a rigidly controlled population (of just twenty thousand compared to the Earth's 8 billion) and robots outnumber the humans ten thousand to one. is simply due to the presence of Daneel who are from Aurora, Baily has some sort of recognition of authority in Solaria.
"The Robots of Dawn" is set in the spacer world of Aurora, which is interpreted as the first outer planet to be colonised by humans. It's also the most powerful (politically and economically) of all the Spacer worlds. The social setting of Aurora is in heavy contrast to that of Solaria. Unlike Solaria, where every kind of close human contact is viewed as a taboo, Aurorans keep a very liberal attitude towards sex; this contrast can be clearly seen through the words of Gladia, who was heretofore a Solarian. Aurora is not so much dependent on robots as Solaria, but it might be more advanced in the science of robotics than Solaria in which seeing as Solarians couldn't identify Daneel as a robot. Again, the power inequality between Aurora and Earth play an important role in this novel, since Baley is forced to conduct this investigation so as to save Earth from a hostile government coming to power in Aurora, which would prevent earthmen from expanding to more outer worlds in the galaxy.

Analysis of the Futuristic detectives:
Elijah Baley is a police Plainclothesman, his work for the New York City in the Police Department. Baley, like most earthmen in the futuristic world who feel agoraphobic, but he is shown as trying to overcome this shortcoming in "The Robots of Dawn". The agoraphobic nature of Baley mirrors Asimov's own personality, as Asimov himself was agoraphobic. Like Sherlock Holmes, he is represented as a pipe smoker. However, unlike Sherlock Holmes or Dupin, he isn't shown to have a deep passion for detective work, although this doesn't affect the quality of his work much. He does investigation strictly as a profession, and isn't really thrilled on being assigned to tough cases. He is reluctant to travel to outer worlds for investigation, and has to be forced to take up these cases. He is portrayed as being impatient and having a short temper; and this sometimes leads him to jump to and the Chairman, and is emotionally and morally committed to the happenings. Therefore, in this story, it would be more apt to classify him as a tough-guy detective rather than a procedural one.
Crime and Punishment: There seems to be a very different notion of justice that prevails in all two novels. In neither of the three stories is the guilty person (or robot) actually punished; they are let go instead for 'greater goods'.
In which he knows is false, but would convince the Aurorans that Fastolfe is innocent. Even in the end, he tries to portray Amadiro as the one who damaged Jander, even though Fastolfe had told him several times that Amadiro (or for that matter anyone other than Fastolfe himself) would find it impossible to commit that crime. In the end, though he finds out that Giskard was the one responsible for the crime, Baley doesn't reveal this information to the public. Since the real purpose of his visit to Aurora is accomplished, he probably found it unnecessary to expose Giskard; or, as Giskard said he could do later, his mind was probably manipulated by Giskard in such a way that he would never find the urge to talk about Giskard's involvement in the crime, even though he would always remember it.
Blending of science fiction with futuristic detective fiction: As mentioned in the introduction, Asimov was told that science fiction mysteries would not play fair with the reader. To prevent this 'potential cheating of the readers', Asimov proposed the following rules (in the introduction to Asimov's Mysteries); that the writer shouldn't spring new devices on the reader and solve the mystery with them and that the writer shouldn't take advantage of future history to introduce ad hoc phenomena. All facets of the future background should be explained well in advance so that the reader gets a decent chance to see the solution. The detective should make use of only the facts which are known to the reader in the present, or the 'facts' of the fictional future which are explained when Baley is shot at with a poisonous arrow and as we find out in the end, to provide the weapon to murder Delmarre. In all cases, robots unwittingly follow the orders of a human being without knowing that they are helping them commit a murder. In The Robots of Dawn, Asimov comes close to breaking this rule. The plot heavily relies on applications of the Laws of Robotics, and in the end the mystery is solved by attributing to R Giskard the ability to read and manipulate human (and robot) thoughts. But this too was a 'fact' that was once explained to the readers, when earlier in the novel Fastolfe narrates the legend of Susan Calvin's telepathic robot, to show how a robot could be potentially damaged by a paradox in the laws of robotics. There are also a number of other instances in the novel, like when Giskard gets to Baley before Daneel to save him, which show that Giskard might have skills that might not be obvious to the rest of the characters. Various other futuristic technologies too are used in the novel, such as hyperspace travel, expressways, psychic probes, cars that 'fly', the futuristic Cities (the 'caves of steel') etc. Other than the Cities, the others seldom affect the elements of detective fiction in the novel; they merely act as plot devices to make the stories more fun and entertaining.

Conclusion:
These novels are set in the futuristic earth, which is overpopulated and can be thought of as a depressing world. Robots are shown to be slowly taking over the less worldly jobs and a large number of people are versus robots taking over their jobs. The crime occurs in spacetown, a colony of spacers in earth just outside New Yark City. Robots live in spacetown are much more avant garde than the ones in earth. Thus this paper tries to analyse