Asimov Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Which partnership is central to Asimov’s robot mystery novels beginning with The Caves of Steel?
Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw
Susan Calvin and Andrew Martin
Hari Seldon and Salvor Hardin
Golan Trevize and Hober Mallow
2. What goal drives Andrew Martin’s long transformation in The Bicentennial Man?
Gaining recognition as a human being
Recovering the secret mathematical basis of psychohistory
Becoming the ruler of a robot-only society
Removing the First Law from every robot
3. What is the principal aim of Hari Seldon’s plan at the beginning of the Foundation saga?
Prevent the Galactic Empire from ever collapsing
Replace human government with rule by robots
Preserve the Empire’s capital as an untouched museum
Shorten the predicted age of disorder after the Empire falls
4. Which development most clearly links Asimov’s Robot novels with the Foundation universe?
Susan Calvin becomes the first mayor of Terminus
R. Daneel Olivaw reappears in the later Foundation story line
Elijah Baley establishes the original Galactic Empire
The Mule is revealed to be a robot built by U.S. Robots
5. A reader wants a standalone Asimov novel about an organization that changes history by altering key moments in time. Which book best matches that description?
The Naked Sun
The End of Eternity
Second Foundation
The Robots of Dawn
6. Which of these Asimov books was published first as a book?
Foundation and Empire
The Caves of Steel
I, Robot
The End of Eternity
7. Why does the Mule pose such a serious problem for the Seldon Plan?
He discovers that Hari Seldon never developed psychohistory
His unusual mental powers make him an individual disruption that psychohistory did not predict
He commands robots that are completely exempt from every Law of Robotics
He prevents the Galactic Empire from beginning its decline
8. Which field-name is Isaac Asimov widely credited with coining in his fiction?
Artificial intelligence
Cybernetics
Robotics
Bioengineering
9. A human tells a robot to remain in a room. The order threatens neither a person nor the robot. Under the original Three Laws, what should the robot normally do?
Ignore the order because only the First Law affects behavior
Leave because self-preservation always has priority
Obey the order under the Second Law
Wait until another robot confirms the instruction
10. A reader describes an Asimov story about a civilization unprepared for the darkness that arrives when every sun finally sets. Which story is being described?
The Last Question
The Dead Past
The Feeling of Power
Nightfall
11. In Asimov’s later robot fiction, what does the Zeroth Law place above the welfare of one individual human?
The survival of the most advanced robot
The stability of the Galactic Empire
The direct commands of a human government
The welfare of humanity as a whole
12. What scientific problem is repeatedly posed across vast stretches of time in The Last Question?
Whether robots can travel faster than light
Whether psychohistory can predict one person’s decisions
Whether entropy can be reversed
Whether an empire can avoid using nuclear power
13. A robot must choose between obeying an order to move a crate and stopping that crate from injuring a nearby person. Under Asimov’s original Three Laws, what takes priority?
Preventing the person from being harmed
Obeying the most recent spoken order
Protecting itself from damage
Completing whichever action it began first
14. How are many of the stories in I, Robot connected by the collection’s framing narrative?
Hari Seldon presents them as examples in a psychohistory lecture
Elijah Baley records them while investigating one criminal case
Andrew Martin discovers them in the archives of the Galactic Empire
Susan Calvin recounts episodes from her career to a reporter
15. In which academic field did Isaac Asimov earn his PhD?
Astronomy
Biochemistry
History
Mathematics
16. An analyst claims psychohistory can predict the exact decision of one isolated ruler tomorrow. Why does this conflict with the concept in the Foundation stories?
Psychohistory predicts statistical behavior in very large populations, not exact individual choices
Psychohistory applies only to robots with positronic brains
Psychohistory can examine the past but cannot model the future
Psychohistory works only after the Second Foundation publicly approves a forecast