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.
| Title | Author | Originally published | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ss San Francisco Examiner Apr 16, 1899 | |||
| The Lost Machine | John Wyndham (as John Beynon Harris) | nv Amazing Apr ’32 | |
| Rex | ss Astounding Jun ’34 | ||
| Robbie [“Strange Playfellow”] | ss Super Science Stories Sep ’40 | ||
| nv Astounding Oct ’40 | |||
| Robot’s Return | ss Astounding Sep ’38 | ||
| Though Dreamers Die | nv Astounding Feb ’44 | ||
| Fulfillment | nv New Tales of Space and Time, ed. Raymond J. Healy, Holt, 1951 | ||
| Runaround [Mike Donovan (Robot)] | nv Astounding Mar ’42 | ||
| ss If Mar ’67 | |||
| The Evitable Conflict [Susan Calvin (Robot)] | nv Astounding Jun ’50 | ||
| Murray Leinster (as Will F. Jenkins) | ss Astounding Mar ’46 | ||
| Sam Hall | nv Astounding Aug ’53 | ||
| I Made You | Walter M. Miller, Jr. | ss Astounding Mar ’54 | |
| Triggerman | ss Astounding Dec ’58 | ||
| War with the Robots | nv Science Fiction Adventures (UK) #27 ’62 | ||
| Evidence [Susan Calvin (Robot)] | ss Astounding Sep ’46 | ||
| 2066: Election Day | ss Astounding Dec ’56 | ||
| nv Galaxy Dec ’63 | |||
| ss Astounding Aug ’51 | |||
| Dial “F” for Frankenstein | ss Playboy Jan ’65 | ||
| The Macauley Circuit | ss Fantastic Universe Aug ’56 | ||
| Judas | ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967 | ||
| Answer | vi Angels and Spaceships, Dutton, 1954 | ||
| ss F&SF Oct ’69 | |||
| nv Stellar #2, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1976 | |||
| Long Shot | ss Analog Aug ’72 | ||
| Alien Stones | nv Orbit 11, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam’s, 1972 | ||
| Starcrossed | ss Eros in Orbit, ed. Joseph Elder, Trident, 1973 |