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rid himself of all traces of what made him different from the ruling race. Taken together, the three stories collected in this book deal with the blurring of man-machine differences for the sake of assimilation. Yet beneath the egalitarian surface runs a detectable preoccupation that, once differences are abolished, robots willpeacefully"take over" (after all, aren't they, in Susan Calvin's words, "a cleaner, better breed than we are"?). Thus, ''The Life and Times of Multivac" finally reverses the Frankenstein complex by having humans rebel against robots.
The role of the Three Laws in the parallel between Blacks and robots is made explicit in The Naked Sun. Here, on a planet much reminiscent of Southern plantations, a murder occurs in which all evidence shows robots to have been at least instrumental. But, like Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas in Native Sun, robots ought to be below suspicion. The idea that they may concur in the killing of a man is enough to throw the entire planet into a panic: its entire social structure is based on the certainty that robots "cannot revolt," on the existence of "good, healthy slave complexes" in the machines.
Alessandro Portelli, "The Three Laws of Robotics: Laws of the Text, Laws of Production, Laws of Society," Science-Fiction Studies 7, No. 2 (July 1980): 15253
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James Gunn
The theme of The End of Eternity is as significant as anything Asimov ever touched. Since it was virtually Asimov's last extended thought about science fiction until unusual circumstances produced The Gods Themselves, the 1955 novel may define the values Asimov was upholding after nearly twenty years of writing science fiction. It may also provide clues to his decision to leave the fantasy world of fiction writing for the real world of science writing.
The End of Eternity shares with other Asimov fiction his basic concern for intelligent choice. Although Harlan begins as a cold and withdrawn Eternal, apparently moved only by intellectual concerns and sharing the values of a group that can change other people's Realities and lives at will, and although Harlan changes only because of his love for Noys, reason still wins out over emotion. In the final chapter, Harlan is persuaded by Noys's rational arguments, not by his love for her. Out of resentment that his love has been manipulated, Harlan has made up his mind to kill Noys, but when he matches his own experience with Noys's accusations, he is persuaded.

 
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