In the second Robots novel from Asimov, The Naked Sun, he explores a new dynamic between robot and human. This time, on a world called Solaria where robots are so plentiful human beings can really sit back and relax and let them do all the work. The flipside is that the population has to be tightly controlled and all human contact is weeded away through the force of culture. Elijah Baley makes his first trip off Earth, meeting with his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw to investigate a seemingly insoluble mystery on Solaria, and to make his own conclusions about the future of human-robot interaction.

Hmm, I’m still finding that this series comes up short for me. I really like the character of Olivaw though. I think he doesn’t get enough playtime and Baley bullies him too much :-) He manages to be formal and robotic, and yet somehow affectionate and – rather human – at the same time.