1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Isaac Asimov, along with (undrafted) and (undrafted), was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers of his lifetime.

His most widely known work, the Foundation series, was in 1966 awarded a special Hugo award for the best all-time science fiction series, ahead of (other extremely famous series by undrafted). It is still the only series so honored.

His short story, Nightfall, was voted the best science fiction short story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

His direct influences on modern culture include his creation of the term robotics, as well as the fictional positronic technology upon which androids such as Data were said to operate in the Stak Trek universe--with full credit given to Asimov, of course. Other homages include the oboe-like holophonor played by Fry in Futurama, based directly upon the "Visi-Sonor" which Magnifico plays in Foundation and Empire.

In addition to the Foundation series, Asimov's various robot works (such as the original I, Robot, later unfortunately presented to modern audiences by the inadequate movie of the same name) introduced the above-quoted Three Laws of Robotics, which have since been adapted by countless authors for their own works.

As if all that wasn't enough, Asimov took about a 25-year hiatus from writing science fiction novels, turning his attention to non-fiction works. Over the quarter-century from 1957-1982, he penned 14 popular history books; a two-volume Asimov's Guide To The Bible; the Black Widowers series (a series of 66 short mysteries for the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, later condensed into book form); a series of 399 articles on popular science periodically collected into book form; a number of books explaining in a very accessible way scientific concepts ranging from astronomy to physics to mathematics... and a bunch of other stuff I would break the bandwidth of the Internet attempting to fully enumerate. Just look it up for yourself! The great variety of information covered in Asimov's writings once prompted (undrafted) to ask, "How does it feel to know everything?"


In short, we get a giant in the pretty darn popular field of science fiction, as well as a brilliant guy who can easily churn out high-quality works in pretty much every field of thought known to mankind. And, as you'll see from a selection of his quotes below, the man loved to write.

"I type 90 words per minute on the typewriter; I type 100 words per minute on the word processor. But, of course, I don't keep that up indefinitely--every once in a while I do have to think a few seconds."

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster."

"Individual science-fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence . . . has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."

"To all my gentle readers who have treated me with love for over 30 years, I must say farewell. It has always been my ambition to die in harness with my head face down on a keyboard and my nose caught between two of the keys, but that's not the way it worked out. I have had a long and happy life and I have no complaints about the ending, thereof, and so farewell -- farewell."