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Study 012 - The Bicentennial Man - Part 2 (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-29 19:09:11
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Our study of Robo-Biology concludes with the second part of Isaac Asimov's novelette The Bicentennial Man!

Special thanks to our reader James Holloway of the podcast Monster Man!

Next up: A bonus episode on Village of the Damned and Day of the Triffids as well as A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny!

Comments

Matthew Thomas

Alright I have been a long time listener and when y'all moved over to the new show I had decided to re listen to every episode. I just am now getting to this episode so this comment is out of date. However, I am rubbed a little raw by Lackey's assumption at the end of the episode that y'all would have never tackled anything like this in the previous show. When everything that Lackey stated about time being a place and change that the book poses is all present (though not as expertly written) in "The quest of Iranon" by HP Lovecraft near the very beginning of the show. At least that's what I got out of the story of an old man trying to reclaim youth and the world he lost with age. But hey love the shows always have even when I don't agree with y'all's interpretations.

nils hedglin

Oh I love A Night in the Lonesome October! Great set up for lots of authors to expand on the story.

Jennifer DeFord

I'm so excited for A Night in the Lonesome October!

Brian J

I've never read this, but that last line has destroyed me. Wow.

Jason Thompson

Wonderful story and commentary. Asimov’s short stories are so good (whereas I remember finding his novels fairly dull… of course, I haven’t read them in 30 years)

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

I love how this is more or less a vampire story with the roles of predator and prey reversed. The same joys and ultimate ennui of those immune to the passage of time. But stripped of the ability to cause harm. Also, Andrew can design their own genitals. So that's something.

Mark Simmons

As I listened to this, I was pondering why a robot would want to become human in the first place, comparing it to other stories on the subject which take various different approaches... you know, abstract sci-fi stuff. Then you guys get all deep and emotional about the transience of life and the passage of time and the nature of aging. Darn you and your thoughtful analysis! Once upon a time this was just about eldritch tentacle monsters. :-)

Damon Bowles

Great telling of a strangely touching story - thanks guys. Chris ruminating on the future evolution of humans reminded me of an illustrated book from the nineties called Man After Man by Dougal Dixon. An example of 'speculative evolution', it features a foreword by celebrated SciFi author Brian Aldiss and presents a full-colour 'what if' take on human biology over the coming millenia and beyond. Totally freaked me out at the time - well worth checking out. :)

Briar Ripley Page

This part of the story, with Andrew pursuing modifications to his body to make him look and function like a man as well as legal recognition of his humanity, resonates really strongly with my experiences as a transgender person, and I would be surprised if I were the only one who felt that way. It's just one of many aspects to THE BICENTENNIAL MAN that make the story feel contemporary and topical despite some inevitably dated elements.

Forrest Rush

Great story, but like so much of Asimov's work I'm always put off by the "cleverness," the O. Henriness of it all (in this case the whole legal shenanigans of getting around the 3 laws). It's a good tale, tugging emotional strings much better than the Robin Williams film, but that's almost always my reaction whenever I start anything by I.A., when's the curveball coming which he's been spit-shining since sentence one. I guess it's why I've always preferred the Foundation triology as he seemed to have gotten too busy with the 3,000 year tale to include any Alan Shore type mental leapfrogs. But of course it does ask provking questions about humanity, I just wish that Asimov would've been satisfied from time to time with just doing that and stop trying to win applause for the inventive ploy.

Richard Horsman

This story was so sweet and optimistic and genuine. Really not what I was expecting from Asimov, who I usually find dry, corny, or both. I do feel like you should cover something really mean and cynical to balance it out sometime soon though. C.M. Kornbluth’s “The Little Black Bag” jumps to mind: it’s a gleeful piece on the theme that people start bad and get worse over time, with one of the more visceral shock ends in classic SF.

The Spider Incident

Great coverage of this story. I too am glad that you've expanded your show beyond what it was when you were HP Podcraft. I'm looking forward to next month's monsters, but it's also great to hear you reviewing and discussion some science fiction stories.

Steve

Star Trek has shown us that humanity comes in lots of shapes and sizes. Lovecraft has shown us that it's the ability to dissect others that proves it. I read much, if not most of Asimov and quite enjoyed the stories. But they feel more like extended fairy stories these days. There's something in the tone that leaves me flat. It's a bit too smooth and easy.

Jim Cannon

I have neither a Sex Pistols jacket nor reverence for any queens.

Jim Cannon

This sounds like a nice story, but I immediately thought of a way to prove Andrew the Android's humanity: is he beholden to the Three Laws of Robotics or not? I mean, he seems capable of circumventing them, but isn't that the gimmick in all of Asimov's robot stories? Free will is such a fraught topic and deep philosophical arguments have been made by much smarter folks than I, claiming that humanity does or does not have free will. But Andrew is someone who has been programmed to follow those laws, any one of which a human can easily violate without a lot of hemming and hawing. Its a "happy" and poignant ending, but also a bit pat for me.

Robby H.

Chris, your story of visiting LA after you've been away for years and your fondness for the LA of the past reminds me of Randolph Carter's sunset city from the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. He dreamed of this romanticized city and traveled to the dreamlands and back to try to find it, only to find out that it was the city of his youth.

Z.A. Kahan

You guys were discussing what happens in other Asimov books. I can at least tell you (no expert, just a fan) that this story is set in the great Robot/Foundation series. And Li-Hsing’s statement about there not being robots like Andrew “for now” greatly comes into play. In addition, the population that moves off Earth becomes a human offshoot of sorts called “Spacers”, and Earth itself eventually retreats into massive domed cities, with the population swelling once more. We even see the eventual development of a “Zeroth Law.” Is this a plug for you guys to cover “The Caves of Steel”? Absolutely.

Jake Wilson

Something I love about Asimov's robots is how they're utterly non-human. They think or process data in ways that are totally alien to us. Despite often acting like humans, they're imho among the best sci-fi 'aliens' ever written, far more unearthly than the Cameronesque "let's mix a wasp with a tiger and make it blue".

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

So I literally just got back from a week long trip to So Cal and Disneyland, which is where I’m from. (Living in Austin, TX now I try to explain where in So Cal I’m from, and nobody has heard of Palos Verdes unless they picked up on one throw away line in a Quentin Tarantino film. So I just say I’m from Disneyland.) I spent a lot of time in Galaxy’s Edge and Avengers Campus, which are new since the last time I took a trip back there (2014), I’ve lived in Texas since 2011… and I have lots of friends, I met my partner here but… I really don’t love living here to put it nicely. My trip has made me long to move back, but I really just spent the whole time in the Parks so… that’s not what my day to day would be like and… yeah. Your comments about things changing really hit me in the feels.

It's a Ghost.

I loved this story! My guess is Asimov, in writing this story, was mostly focused on what it means to be human in general, but I also think this story could really apply to the struggles of anyone who is seen as “other” by society and their struggles to be accepted as fully whatever—human, male or female, American, British, etc. Specifically, the part about Andrew writing a book about robots very much reminded me of autistic people being frustrated by articles about autism that never actually talk with autistic people to get their perspective.

Derek Scott

I really got a lot out of this story. Coincidently, I have been going through the back catalog in order again and just recently listened to "Mr. Arcularis". I was moved by Chad's response to that story and there were many corollaries in the two stories centered around how our thoughts about mortality and how we live/what we value in our lives evolve as we get older. For those of us with children, it is of tremendous importance, at least I have found it to be so, to be a positive force in their lives, not so much for selfish reasons, but rather for the effects our relationship will have on them when they get to be our age. Very stirring and thought provoking stuff.

Doug McCool

Well I, for one, DO want to be immortal, and no amount of flowery language about mortality is ever going to convince me otherwise. :)

Jason Thompson

This is an interesting story because Andrew doesn’t just want to be free, he wants to be HUMAN. So it sidesteps a lot of the issues about “robot rebellion/freeing the robots” in things like HBO’s Westworld. Firstly, because Andrew is one-of-a-kind and the corporation immediately works to prevent future Andrews from happening. But also, because Andrew doesn’t seem to feel much connection to other robots and diligently pursued his goals as an individual, not so much as a representative of robothood. He even (sorta) renounces robothood at the end! I’m not saying this makes it a bad story, either as a story or morally; it just chooses to focus on what it chooses.

Rick Hound

This is bringing back concepts I’ve been looking at the contemporary book “Blindsight” and the idea of replacing a part of you and the consciousness human prescribe might not be the same across the universe and a whole race could exist without that human distant idea of consciousness. Furthermore this also brought up my impressions of the themes in the manga series “Blame” where humanity did change but ways odd and chaotic than we would expect, that of course this change in ourselves won’t be in a vacuum.

Kallum Buxton

Chad's "Dyson-sentimental-man" story about his roomba's prison break resonated with me. As an ecologist I often advise people to keep their domestic pet cats inside due to the damage they can do to ecosystems, but had paid no thought to Roombas. But now I'm reconsidering what a small, seemingly innocuous robot, hell bent on cleaning, could do if it got loose, especially one with no natural predators.

Chris Beres

I like that Asimov often has robots trying to skirt his own laws, like Andrew becoming mortal to avoid a less literal but more philosophical death. Sidenote, been following the show since the beginning (okay, since Polaris, close enough), but this is the first time I felt compelled to read the story beforehand. I guess sometimes you just need 600+ chances before you decide to participate.

Rafe Ball

ROBOCLINTON DID NOT INHALE. ROBOCLINTON HAS NO NEED FOR RESPIRATION.

Aaron La Vene

I think “Little Miss” was him reaching out to her, she was what inspired all of this in the beginning. She helped him start this path to become human and he finally did it. He wanted to show her he was finally human. Also maybe he was considering some form of afterlife? Which is a weird thing to conceptualize even as humans nevertheless as a robot.

Derrick Mcmullin

When I was a young lad I got my start in science fiction reading Asimov's robot stories. The laws must have been a giant boon to Asimov because most of his robot stories were about how those laws would interact with both the commands humans would give him and the situations humans put them in. They were fascinating to me as a young pre teenager

FB

When I saw this one, I waited for both parts to be released so I could listen to it all the way through….It is one of my favorite stories because it was a story I was angry at as a kid. I read it soon after my dad bought the anthology in 1976, when I was 12. I really liked SF, and read voraciously…and I was MAD at this story because it made me cry. I guess I just wanted spaceships and rayguns (I was a big fan of Burroughs and Conan and early Heinlein and I liked action)….and this story made me feel SAD, which I wasn’t expecting. In some ways it was an awakening to the power of speculative fiction. Years later I read it and loved it…it’s funny how a particular story can stick with us. It’s kind of funny that Asimov, who was generally not very good at writing characters was one of the first authors to really affect me.