Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they ‘think’ I may have written, and tell them where to find it. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer.” But it also had, and continues to have, “the strangest effect on my readers.

“For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn’t have to fiddle with it and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. In I, Robot, both humans and robots have the ability to make choices but once they understand what the best choice is, there's no reason for them to make choices.“Why is it my favorite?” Asimov later wrote. Since humans are constrained by certain rules, just like robots, I, Robot shows us how robotic we are-or how human our robots are. Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate. Are there other ways that human choices are limited? The Three Laws limit the robot choices in these stories but what limits human choices? Donovan and Powell discuss rules of behavior and government laws certainly seem to limit certain options in these stories.What happens in these stories when human choices conflict? For instance, when Bogert's choice to become Director of Research conflicts with Lanning's choice to stay on as Director of Research.As a variation on that last question, how much free will does humanity have as a whole here? Do we lose the ability to make choices when the Machines start to help us? Do you agree with Susan Calvin's argument that humanity never had any real ability to control our destiny (Evitable Conflict.225)?.This is the big question: how much free will do individual humans have in these stories? For instance, when Milton Ashe is attracted to a pretty woman, is that a choice he has made? When Bogert is ambitious, has he made a choice to be ambitious?.So it almost seems as if humans don't have much choice either. But at the end of the book, in 'The Evitable Conflict,' Susan Calvin points out that humans have always had limits on what they can choose. In I, Robot, it may seem like Asimov is setting up a distinction between robots and humans: robots have no choice, humans do. For instance, if a robot sees someone in danger, it has to act. Robots are constrained by the Three Laws: they don't have a lot of choice about what they can do.

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