The Wild Robot Escapes

The Wild Robot has been "fixed" and sent out to work as a farm robot. However, she has a secret. Her memories of living in the wild with her adoptive gosling son are still present and she wants to go back. On the farm, she works hard to complete her tasks and help the farmer after the death of his wife. She also tells plenty of stories about the "wild robot" to the children. She would like to escape to live on her island, but doesn't want to abandon the farm.

She continues to use her "speaking to animals" skills. She helps chase off wolves. She also talks with the cows and other animals. She further tells various geese about her son. One day she has an exciting reunion with the son. The kids overhear and help plan for her escape from the farm. There are a few close calls as she moves away. However, she scares some people in the city and gets brought to the robot factory. She makes a show of destroying her, but in actuality, she transports her brain to a new body and brings her back to the island where she lives happily ever after.

Is this a parable of race relations with the end goal of sending the former slaves back to Liberia? Or perhaps it is just exploring a future of how robots will live with humans. The robots in the story are clearly second class citizens. However, they have become more and more engrained in the daily lives of humans. People need the robots. As the robots are becoming more sentient, should we start expanding the rights that we give them? Do we allow them to make mistakes? There are plenty of ethical and societal implications.

Wild Robot

A cargo ship loses some of its cargo in a big storm. This cargo includes a few advanced robots. Most of them are destroyed. However, one makes it to the island unharmed. It is inadvertently turned on by some animals. The robot then becomes part of the animal culture. It learns how to speak the language of the various animals. Soon it becomes friends with the other animals and one of the most respected beings on the island. It also finds an orphaned gosling and becomes an adoptive mother. The robot has many adventures on the island. The now grown up goose eventually joins the migration where it sees humans, other robots and guns. This comes in handy when other robots come to take the wild robot back. The animals manage to get together and defeat the other robots, leaving the wild robot with some tough decisions.

This book is targeted at children/ middle grade readers. It is set in a near futuristic society. However, there are plenty of ecological and sociological themes. By keeping an open mind, the robot is able to adapt to the situation and live in peace with the animals. The animals still maintain their natural predator/prey behaviors. However, the robot does enforce occasional truces in times of need. There is also the case of a fish who is "stuck" in the dammed up portion of the river. He is mean to the beavers. However, it turns out he just wanted to go home. The robot helps to create peace by helping the fish get back to its family.

Caves of Steel

Caves of steel in six sentences: A cop is assigned a robot for a companion. They attempt to crack a murder case in "space town". The cop goes down a lot of false paths, manifesting his robot prejudice. Eventually he helps crack the case. The robot was not able to identify the culprit because his brain analysis did not reveal the guilt. However, the human realized an accidental killing would not manifest the guilt.

Caves of Steel in six words: Human outsmarts robot, solves Turing test.

Caves of Steel is OK as a mystery and OK as science fiction.

I wonder if this was one of the things I read in my youth. I remember reading a lot of Asimov, but not reading the foundation books. There must be some good stuff out there. However, it seems a lot of this is merely ok.