Machines That Think is a compilation of 29 science fiction stories probing the scientific, spiritual, and moral facets of computers and robots and speculating on their future. It was edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Patricia S. Warrick.
Published in 1984 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, it features a foreword by Asimov, the celebrated creator of the Three Laws of Robotics. (At five stories, Asimov's contributions dominate the book's contents.) Machines That Think was reprinted in 1992 by Wings Books as War with the Robots. However, one story — "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison — was removed.
Each story has introductory notes by Warrick, author of The Cybernetic Imagination in Science Fiction (1981), explaining the significance of the story in the context of science fiction's evolution of ideas concerning artificial intelligence. This anthology is a companion piece to that non-fiction book, providing the source material upon which Warrick's analysis is based.
Contents Title Author Originally publishedMoxon’s Master Ambrose Bierce ss San Francisco Examiner Apr 16, 1899The Lost Machine John Wyndham (as John Beynon Harris) nv Amazing Apr ’32Rex Harl Vincent ss Astounding Jun ’34Robbie [“Strange Playfellow”] Isaac Asimov ss Super Science Stories Sep ’40Farewell to the Master Harry Bates nv Astounding Oct ’40Robot’s Return Robert Moore Williams ss Astounding Sep ’38Though Dreamers Die Lester del Rey nv Astounding Feb ’44Fulfillment A. E. van Vogt nv New Tales of Space and Time, ed. Raymond J. Healy, Holt, 1951Runaround [Mike Donovan (Robot)] Isaac Asimov nv Astounding Mar ’42I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Harlan Ellison ss If Mar ’67The Evitable Conflict [Susan Calvin (Robot)] Isaac Asimov nv Astounding Jun ’50A Logic Named Joe Murray Leinster (as Will F. Jenkins) ss Astounding Mar ’46Sam Hall Poul Anderson nv Astounding Aug ’53I Made You Walter M. Miller, Jr. ss Astounding Mar ’54Triggerman J. F. Bone ss Astounding Dec ’58War with the Robots Harry Harrison nv Science Fiction Adventures (UK) #27 ’62Evidence [Susan Calvin (Robot)] Isaac Asimov ss Astounding Sep ’462066: Election Day Michael Shaara ss Astounding Dec ’56If There Were No Benny Cemoli Philip K. Dick nv Galaxy Dec ’63The Monkey Wrench Gordon R. Dickson ss Astounding Aug ’51Dial “F” for Frankenstein Arthur C. Clarke ss Playboy Jan ’65The Macauley Circuit Robert Silverberg ss Fantastic Universe Aug ’56Judas John Brunner ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967Answer Fredric Brown vi Angels and Spaceships, Dutton, 1954The Electric Ant Philip K. Dick ss F&SF Oct ’69The Bicentennial Man Isaac Asimov nv Stellar #2, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1976Long Shot Vernor Vinge ss Analog Aug ’72Alien Stones Gene Wolfe nv Orbit 11, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam’s, 1972Starcrossed George Zebrowski ss Eros in Orbit, ed. Joseph Elder, Trident, 1973
See also Isaac Asimov bibliography (chronological)
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