True Love

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was a Russian-born American author, professor, and a prolific writer of science fiction and nonfiction. His writing was influenced by his experience during wartime, his relationships with other writers, and his background in biochemistry. During World War II, Asimov worked at the Naval Aviation Experimental Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and when the war was finished, he enrolled in graduate school at Columbia University, earning a PhD in chemistry in 1948. Asimov then joined the faculty at Boston University, where he taught for many years.

A six-time Hugo Award winner, Asimov is most famous for his Foundation and Robot series, and his work has been remade many times for film and television. Asimov was also well-known as a philosophical thinker, particularly in the field of ethics. One of his most famous theories, developed in conjunction with Astounding Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell, is called the “Three Laws of Robotics,” in which he sought to create a fail-safe ethical system for artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure that the technology would be beneficial and not harmful to humanity. The movie I, Robot, made in 2004 and starring Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan, is one example of Asimov’s work and its long-lasting popularity. The movie, like the book I, Robot, uses Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” to set a mystery and provide social commentary.

“True Love,” originally published in the February 1977 edition of the magazine American Way and later included in the short story anthologies The Complete Robot (1982) and Robot Dreams (1986), is very much about this ethical balance between human aspiration and the equally human penchant for taking shortcuts. “True Love” can be seen as a cautionary tale in the guise of science fiction. Asimov considers what happens when an individual is willing to put humanity at risk in the pursuit of personal desires.

Writing at the advent of modern computer programing in the 1970s, Asimov begins with a tale about a man’s search for love and ends with a treacherous AI who becomes human enough to betray his maker. This short story was published just before computer programming went mainstream, slightly before any kid in his parents’ garage could build an entire computer system or use Linux (an open-source operating system first released as a family of systems in 1991) without supervision or regulation. In many ways, science fiction writers like Asimov foresaw the use of computer programs and technology in all facets of our lives, including our romantic relationships.

Asimov has related in interviews that he wrote this short story to console himself after his adult daughter left to return to her own home after a visit. The theme of the edition of American Way that “True Love” appeared in was Valentine’s Day, so Asimov combined the idea of romantic love with that of the complexities of a parent-child relationship in which the child must inevitably one day break free of the control and wishes of the parent.