In The Caves of Steel, Asimov is writing in the early’50s, and yet, some of his discussion mirrors closely the ideas we see in the media and news today: conservation, “green living”, etc. The relationship of the people to Nature in the book is somewhat alarming at first, especially when we learn that Elijah Baley has only rarely seen rain, for example. The Commissioner clearly spells out that “the troubles from modern life come from being divorced from Nature” as compared to earlier times in Earth’s history when “people lived in the open…when it rained…they gloried in it. They lived close to nature.” What earlier time in history is he referring to? Is he commenting on his society in the post WWII America? Does this still speak to us somehow today?

God calls us to be stewards of the blessings he has given us, including Creation, does He not? The Commissioner also says that “the difference between us and the Spacers [is]…we reach high and crowd close. With them, each family has a dome for itself.” It seems clear that the Spacers have a different relationship with the land, and a different relationship with others in their society. What is Asimov trying to say do you suppose? What value judgment is he trying to impose? What does he imply, through description and characterization, about the Spacers? About the humans in the ‘caves of steel’? Do we agree? What does this ultimately say about us? About our relationship to God, others and Creation?