Machines That Think
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 published |
|---|---|---|
| Moxon’s Master | Ambrose Bierce | ss San Francisco Examiner Apr 16, 1899 |
| The Lost Machine | John Wyndham (as John Beynon Harris) | nv Amazing Apr ’32 |
| Rex | Harl Vincent | ss Astounding Jun ’34 |
| Robbie [“Strange Playfellow”] | Isaac Asimov | ss Super Science Stories Sep ’40 |
| Farewell to the Master | Harry Bates | nv Astounding Oct ’40 |
| Robot’s Return | Robert Moore Williams | ss Astounding Sep ’38 |
| Though Dreamers Die | Lester del Rey | nv Astounding Feb ’44 |
| Fulfillment | A. E. van Vogt | nv New Tales of Space and Time, ed. Raymond J. Healy, Holt, 1951 |
| Runaround [Mike Donovan (Robot)] | Isaac Asimov | nv Astounding Mar ’42 |
| I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream | Harlan Ellison | ss If Mar ’67 |
| The Evitable Conflict [Susan Calvin (Robot)] | Isaac Asimov | nv Astounding Jun ’50 |
| A Logic Named Joe | Murray Leinster (as Will F. Jenkins) | ss Astounding Mar ’46 |
| Sam Hall | Poul Anderson | nv Astounding Aug ’53 |
| I Made You | Walter M. Miller, Jr. | ss Astounding Mar ’54 |
| Triggerman | J. F. Bone | ss Astounding Dec ’58 |
| War with the Robots | Harry Harrison | nv Science Fiction Adventures (UK) #27 ’62 |
| Evidence [Susan Calvin (Robot)] | Isaac Asimov | ss Astounding Sep ’46 |
| 2066: Election Day | Michael Shaara | ss Astounding Dec ’56 |
| If There Were No Benny Cemoli | Philip K. Dick | nv Galaxy Dec ’63 |
| The Monkey Wrench | Gordon R. Dickson | ss Astounding Aug ’51 |
| Dial “F” for Frankenstein | Arthur C. Clarke | ss Playboy Jan ’65 |
| The Macauley Circuit | Robert Silverberg | ss Fantastic Universe Aug ’56 |
| Judas | John Brunner | ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967 |
| Answer | Fredric Brown | vi Angels and Spaceships, Dutton, 1954 |
| The Electric Ant | Philip K. Dick | ss F&SF Oct ’69 |
| The Bicentennial Man | Isaac Asimov | nv Stellar #2, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1976 |
| Long Shot | Vernor Vinge | ss Analog Aug ’72 |
| Alien Stones | Gene Wolfe | nv Orbit 11, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam’s, 1972 |
| Starcrossed | George Zebrowski | ss Eros in Orbit, ed. Joseph Elder, Trident, 1973 |