My first sci-fi hero was Professor Shonku, the brilliant, reclusive scientist of Satyajit Ray’s short stories. I hope to write about Professor Shonku someday, but let me tell you about R. Daneel Olivaw, my second sci-fi hero.
When I was twelve, I was introduced to the great American sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov. I started with his short stories, and eventually graduated to the novels. A regret is that I read Nightfall, his greatest short story — a masterpiece of eerie, ambient danger; and of the greatest leveler, the infinity — when I was too young to truly appreciate it. With the Foundation series and the Robot series, though, I was right on time.
I am not a fan of sci-fi in general, but I love the Foundation series.
There are memorable characters on every chapter — Salvor Hardin of the ‘Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent’ have always been a favourite — the war commander who would not wield a sword or raise a fleet. And yet win. Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian, is the trigger for the series, and his shadow looms over every novel. Hober Mallow, Dors Venabili, Bayta Darrell, Golan Trevize, the Mule — characters that have been etched in the mind forever.
Unlike many other sci-fi series, this did not trade individual scope for greater scale, quite amazing for a series which traverses 24,000 years. And it is within the pages of the Foundation series that I encountered R. Daneel Olivaw — the mysterious, omnipresent someone who has only one purpose, that of the safe-keep of humanity. I graduated to the other series, and got to know that Olivaw has been in another series which comes earlier in the chronology — the Robot series.
The R in R. Daneel Olivaw, stands for Robot, a standard naming convention in Asimov’s world. Olivaw is a humanoid robot, indistinguishable from a human, and was introduced in the novel The Caves of Steel. He was built in 4920 AD (it is important to note here that the Foundation Series happens around 24,000 AD), and is governed by the Three Laws of Robotics – a point of reference created by Asimov and adapted by many later sci-fi writers.
Olivaw starts as a police robot, and works with human policeman Elijah Baley. Initially the relationship with his human counterpart is not smooth — Baley suspects him of murder, a theory that contravenes the First Law of Robotics (‘A robot may not harm a human). But eventually Baley’s suspicion is unfounded, and he warms up to Olivaw.
Yesterday’s sci-fi is today’s science. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are modern buzzwords even in business. While in proximity of Baley, who is an exceptional man, Olivaw learns the nuances of justice and his greater purpose. And the undying robot continues to serve humanity with this perspective, more than twenty-thousand years hence, in the Foundation series.
I will come back to Satyajit Ray and the recent short film Anukul, made from a story he wrote. Request — watch it. The message I took out of it is that human society moves forward in collaboration with, not in opposition to the machine. Machines like R. Daneel Olivaw. Robotization is not doom and gloom, it is the dawn of a brighter tomorrow.
Shom Biswas
Twitter@spinstripe
The writer is a business development executive in Hyderabad