The Bicentennial Man is a
novellaA novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. While there is disagreement as to what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count...
in the
Robot SeriesIsaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of short stories and novels by Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots.- Short stories :Most of Asimov's robot short stories are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration...
by
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
. The story formed the basis of the novel
The Positronic ManThe Positronic Man is a novel co-written by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's novella The Bicentennial Man....
(1993), co-written with
Robert SilverbergRobert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.-Life and work:...
, and the 1999 film
Bicentennial ManBicentennial Man is a 1999 dramedy film starring Robin Williams and Sam Neill based on the well-known novella of the same name by Isaac Asimov.- Summary :...
, starring
Robin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian.Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
.
The original story was awarded the
Hugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories...
for best science fiction novelette of 1976.
According to the foreword in Robot Visions, Asimov was approached to write a story titled "Bicentennial Man" for a science fiction collection, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, in honor of the bicentennial of the United States.
The Bicentennial Man is a
novellaA novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. While there is disagreement as to what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count...
in the
Robot SeriesIsaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of short stories and novels by Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots.- Short stories :Most of Asimov's robot short stories are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration...
by
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
. The story formed the basis of the novel
The Positronic ManThe Positronic Man is a novel co-written by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's novella The Bicentennial Man....
(1993), co-written with
Robert SilverbergRobert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.-Life and work:...
, and the 1999 film
Bicentennial ManBicentennial Man is a 1999 dramedy film starring Robin Williams and Sam Neill based on the well-known novella of the same name by Isaac Asimov.- Summary :...
, starring
Robin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian.Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
.
The original story was awarded the
Hugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories...
for best science fiction novelette of 1976.
According to the foreword in Robot Visions, Asimov was approached to write a story titled "Bicentennial Man" for a science fiction collection, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, in honor of the bicentennial of the United States. However, the arrangement fell through, leaving Asimov's the only story actually completed for the project.
Plot summary
In the twenty-first century the creation of the
positronic brainA positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Its role is to serve as a central computer for a robot, and, in some unspecified way, to provide it with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans...
leads to the development of robot laborers and revolutionizes life on Earth. But to the Martin family, their household robot NDR-114 is more than a mechanical servant. "Andrew" has become a trusted friend, a confidant, and a member of the Martin family.
The story is told from the perspective of
Andrew (later known as
Andrew Martin), an NDR-series
robotA robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an electro-mechanical machine which is guided by computer or electronic programming, and is thus able to do tasks on its own...
owned by the Martin family, a departure from the usual practice by
U.S. Robots and Mechanical MenThe fictional corporation U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. is the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century in Isaac Asimov's Robot Series of novels and short stories....
of leasing robots.
Andrew's initial experiences with the Martin family are replete with awkward moments which demonstrate his lack of
socializationThe term socialization is used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, politicians and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies...
. However, he is much better with inanimate objects and animals and begins to display
sapientSapience is often defined as wisdom, or the ability of an organism or entity to act with appropriate judgment. Judgment is a mental faculty which is a component of intelligence or...
characteristics (such as creativity; emotion; self-awareness) traditionally the province of humans. He is taken off his mundane household duties, for which he was intended, and allowed to pursue his creativity, making a fortune by selling his creations.
Andrew seeks legal protection stemming from his initial creative output and eventual full recognition as a human, by gradually replacing his robotic components with organic ones, and citing the process as a transformation from robot to human. Succeeding generations of the Martin family assist him in his quest for humanity, but each is limited to what degree they are prepared to acknowledge. Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to "decay", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he finally accepted as a human being. This event takes place on the two-hundredth anniversary of the start of his organic conversion, hence the title.
Foundation universe
This story is set within Asimov's
Foundation universeFoundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy . Foundation is a collection of five short stories, which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951...
, which also includes his earlier
Susan CalvinDr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character from Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. She was the chief robopsychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century. She was the main character in many short stories from the books I, Robot and The Complete...
positronic robot tales. It is clearly set a number of centuries prior to the events of his novelette "Mother Earth" and the novel
The Caves of SteelThe Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction is a flavor that can be applied to any literary genre, rather than a limited genre itself. Specifically, in the book Asimov's Mysteries, he claims that...
, during a period in which the
SpacerIn Isaac Asimov's Foundation/Empire/Robot series, the Spacers were the first humans to emigrate to space. About a millennium thereafter, they severed political ties with Earth, and embraced low population growth and extreme longevity as a means for a high standard of living, in combination with...
worlds have yet to turn against the people of the Earth, and in which the
U.S. RobotsThe fictional corporation U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. is the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century in Isaac Asimov's Robot Series of novels and short stories....
corporation is still active.
In
The Robots of DawnThe Robots of Dawn is a "whodunit" science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. It is the third novel in Asimov's Robot series.It was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1984.- Plot summary :...
, Dr. Han Fastolfe refers to Andrew Martin as a robot that was supposed to have undergone "gradual humanization," but states that such a thing would have been impossible, because the shape of the body dictates the state of the mind.