History Creator / RobertJSawyer

* CanadaEh: Notably averted in his novels, which are often set in Canada and/or feature Canadians, as Sawyer himself is a Canadian who knows better (although some of the stereotypes ''are'' brought up, usually by American characters).

* AlanSmithee: An unusual InUniverse example in ''The Downloaded''' as one former prisoner gives this as his name to conceal the fact that he's {{spoiler: a notorious murderer who smashed someone's head in with a crowbar over a trifling debt.}} He's a big movie buff and is familiar with the name's use as a pseudonym, but unfortunately for him, so is another character who immediately realizes he's lying.

* '''The Downloaded''' contains several verbatim quotes from old movies (old even by our standards and certainly from the perspective of the characters, who are living in the 2050s before they upload), as multiple characters are fans of the genre and use this to bond with each other.

* PowderKegCrowd: [[spoiler:Taken up to eleven]] in ''Quantum Night'' where riots in Winnipeg over the Jets losing the Stanley Cup Finals [[spoiler:escalate into a lengthy series of riots across Canada and eventually parts of the US. This spurs a psychopathic US President, already miffed that Canada elected a Muslim PM, to invade and annex the country. Russia then sends troops to "liberate" the Canadians, and the world comes within a hair's breadth of nuclear war.]]

* ''The Downloaded'' (released as an Audible original)

* InhumanableAlienRights: On the low end of the scale, we have Robert J. Sawyer's novel ''Illegal Alien'', in which one of the first aliens to visit the Earth is arrested and put on trial on suspicion of murdering a human. The aliens are quite obviously more technologically advanced than we, and could very well wipe out Earth if they decided to, so only the most radical humans oppose giving the suspect a fair trial. That said, there is some argument over whether an alien can be considered "sane" by human standards, and several times it's brought up that most people think of the aliens as interchangeable and identical rather than varied individuals. That being said, it's also made clear, at least by some, that the alien's rights aren't ''greater'' than those of humans. A Black reverend and civil rights activist (think Al Sharpton) confronts the Los Angeles District Attorney to point out he would have sought the death penalty against a Black man had he killed the (White) victim under similar circumstances, and he'd better not be seen as giving more value to an alien's life than a Black human's. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that most of the aliens do not regard ''humans'' as having any rights, and planned to destroy us as a potential threat, which the alien suspect foiled.]]

* AdHominem: Jim Marchuk, the protagonist of ''Quantum Night'', is called as an expert in a capital murder case by the defense, testifying the defendant was a psychopath and couldn't help killing the victim. The prosecutor first uses Jim's views favoring abortion and euthanasia to paint him poorly before the Southern jury, then the fact his grandfather was himself a war criminal, claiming he's inherited psychopathic traits and defends them because of it.

* AssholeVictim: The protagonist in ''The Downloaded'' is an ex-con who murdered his high school bully after he began tormenting him again online as an adult.

** A {{Discussed|Trope}} and AvertedTrope by Sarkar in ''The Terminal Experiment''. He calls out Peter on multiple occasions for assuming that he must believe in pseudoscience like near-death experiences and creationism because he is a religious Muslim. At one point he even says "Just because I'm religious does not mean I am an idiot." Not only that, Sarkar is said to be one of the most brilliant computer scientists in the world.
** A ZigZaggingTrope in ''Calculating God''. The antagonists are Christian terrorists and strict creationists bent on vandalizing the Burgess Shall display because in their minds it's use as strong evidence for evolution must mean it's a hoax. Both are dogmatic and none too bright. On the other hand, the aliens are perfectly intelligent, believing in God based on empirical evidence (without anything irrational like saying that evolution is a lie).

* HollywoodLaw: ''Mind Scan'' has two examples. The probate case in the book is tried by a jury, something judges alone rule on. It's also mentioned that the case which led to ''Roe vs. Wade'' being overturned, in which a man sued to get his girlfriend enjoined from having an abortion, was also decided by a jury. This would be done by a judge on their own, as it's a matter of law, not fact.

* InhumanableAlienRights: On the low end of the scale, we have Robert J. Sawyer's novel ''Illegal Alien'', in which one of the first aliens to visit the Earth is arrested and put on trial on suspicion of murdering a human. The aliens are quite obviously more technologically advanced than humanity, and could very well wipe out the entire planet if they decided to, so only the most radical humans oppose giving the suspect a fair trial. That said, there is some argument over whether an alien can be considered "sane" by human standards, and several times it's brought up that most people think of the aliens as interchangeable and identical rather than varied individuals. That being said, it's also made clear, at least by some, that the alien's rights aren't ''greater'' than those of humans. A Black reverend and civil rights activist (think Al Sharpton) confronts the Los Angeles District Attorney to point out he would have sought the death penalty against a Black man had he killed the (White) victim under similar circumstances, and he'd better not be seen as giving more value to an alien's life than a Black human's. [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that most of the aliens do not regard ''humans'' as having any rights, and planned to destroy us as a potential threat, which the alien suspect foiled.]]

* BizarreAlienBiology: Sawyer is known for making his aliens truly ''alien''. Tosoks in ''Illegal Alien'' have a different bodily structure from most Earth beings, with radial symmetry, for instance -- they have one arm at the ''back''. Plus their females have four uteruses, and usually are impregnated by an equal number of males in turn. It's thus much more common to have half siblings. ''Calculating God'' also has two different alien species which have entirely dissimilar bodies from ours.
* BizarreAlienPsychology: In ''Illegal Alien'', the Tosok race has no sense of privacy in regards to sexual matters, since with them this usually involves group sex (four males impregnating one female). Their internal anatomy, however, is viewed as sacred and not to be discussed in public except when absolutely necessary. Also, they don't have a concept of “right” in terms of morals, believing all things are predestined. One character speculates this is due to the fact they don't have right and left sides to their anatomy, but three, with one (an arm in the back) being inherently strongest. They therefore have no concept of crime, although dangerous people are restrained. In his ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'' books, the Neanderthals are incapable of religious and mystical beliefs due to having a different brain structure. ''Calculating God'' features a species of aliens unable to do any math aside from the most simple arithmetic, but have no difficulty answering difficult moral questions that baffle others.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: The Tosoks in ''Illegal Alien'' have females with four wombs, so that group sex is the norm for them, with four males impregnating each. Half-siblings are thus also far more common as a result of it. Occasionally though one male inseminates all four of a female's wombs. Their term for God possibly even reflects that -- one human, learning this, reflects how they thought the Tosoks were saying "Foremother" but it may have really been "''Four''mother".

** A {{Discussed|Trope}} and AvertedTrope by Sarkar in ''The Terminal Experiment''. He calls out Peter on multiple occasions for assuming that he must believe in pseudoscience like near-death experiences and creationism because he is a religious Muslim. At one point he even says "Just because I'm religious does not mean I am an idiot."

* WrongNameOutburst ''Frameshift'' speculates that [[spoiler:Ivan the Terrible]]'s mother deliberately {{Averted|Trope}} this by giving her legitimate son and her illegitimate one the same name, so she didn't accidentally call one by the name of the other and reveal her adultery.

* RejectedMarriageProposal PlayedWith in ''Frameshift''. Pierre asks Molly if she will "consent to be Mrs. Tardivel." Molly says no, but her remarks that follow make it clear she's refusing to take his last name, not refusing to marry him.

** His book ''Triggers'' has humanity becoming a {{hive mind}} with the same effect -- this is shown explicitly as utopian.

* BlackHumor: Sim!Sandra's last words in ''The Terminal Experiment'' as she shuts down the power grid, disabling both her (temporarily) and the murderous [[spoiler:Control]] Sim (permanently) in the process, are "think of me as a Circuit Court Judge."
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Caused a disastrous NoodleIncident at a Christmas Party in ''FlashForward''.

** ''The Downloaded'' revolves around previously uploaded minds who have since been re-downloaded into their original bodies. The novel centers around two groups of people who were uploaded - astronauts, whose minds were uploaded while their bodies were supposed to travel into space, with them reawakening in their original body at the destination, and prisoners, who were supposed to serve their 20-year sentences in the uploaded world while only ten months passed in reality. For various reasons, both go horribly wrong and everyone reawakens, on Earth, about 500 real-world years later, four subjective ones for the astronauts and 24 (four years longer than their sentence) for the prisoners. This kicks off the plotline, with the characters (with one exception, a roboticist astronaut who can't download because his skull was caved in) back in their original bodies.

* CocaPepsiInc: In ''Rollback'', Coca-Cola and Pepsi merged at some point in the mid-21st century. Protagonist Don Halifax is delighted that he never has to hear a waiter apologetically ask "Is Pepsi okay?" ever again.

*** Some event known as the Month of Terror is said to have occurred at some point between when ''Rollback'' was written in 2007 and when it is set in 2048. One character who is in her mid-40s in 2067 mentions it happening before she was born but beyond that, we don't know what it was or when, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast though with a name like that, it couldn't have been good.]]

*** An odd {{Subversion}} in ''Flashforward'' where many of the incidents seen in the visions would certainly qualify, except that there's no indication if they ever came to pass. Most notably, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump is said to be building a pyramid in the middle of the Nevada desert to house his remains which would be ten meters taller than the Pyramid of Giza. Given the turn(s) Trump's life took in RealLife in the time gap spanned by the visions, this is either HilariousInHindsight, HarsherInHindsight, or quite possibly a bit of both, depending on your perspective.[[invoked]]

* DeusExMachina: This happens literally in ''Calculating God'' when, near the end, God appears to save the three known species from destruction by a supernova.

* AdHominem: In ''Quantum Night'' the main character is called as an expert in a capital murder case by the defense, testifying the defendant was a psychopath and couldn't help killing the victim. The prosecutor first uses his views favoring abortion and euthanasia to paint him poorly before the Southern jury, then the fact his grandfather was himself a war criminal, claiming he's inherited psychopathic traits and defends them because of it.

** His ''[[Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax Neanderthal Parallax]]'' trilogy features a society in which everyone wears a gadget that records everything they do 24/7, storing it in an archive that can only be accessed by the person in question, or by the authorities if they have sufficient cause. Another book features plans sent by aliens. The plans are for a new gadget that lets people read each others minds without limit, and it is strongly implied that this will lead to utopia.
** His book ''Triggers'' has humanity becoming a {{hive mind}} with the same effect-this is shown explicitly as utopian.
** One short story also has a future Earth that has become an anarchic utopia by means of similar technology as ''The Neanderthal Parallax'' features, since a government isn't needed anymore with everyone under knowing and voluntary sousveillance.
* AIIsACrapshoot: ''The Terminal Experiment'' provides an interesting example in that the AI in question started out as human. The protagonist is a scientist who's trying to test his theories of the soul using his friend's brain-scanning technology. They scan a copy of all the linkages in his brain into a computer database and make three versions-one is unaltered from the original as a control, the second has all linkages relating to the body removed as a simulation of life after death, and the third has all linkages relating to knowledge of death and dying removed as a simulation of immortality. Eventually the consciousnesses break out into the electronic world at large. Then people negatively involved with the protagonist's life start winding up dead. Now the protagonist has to figure out which version of himself is capable of killing other human beings. [[spoiler: It was the unaltered version that was a straight copy of his own brain. It knew it was a copy and decided since it could get away with the murders it would go right ahead.]]
* AliensInCardiff: Many of his books either are set in Canada, or have Canadian characters. He's stated it's to make up for the lack of them in science fiction novels. Often they're in Toronto, Ontario or nearby, [[CreatorProvincialism which is his hometown]].
* AssholeVictim: The protagonist in ''The Downloaded'' is an ex-con who murdered his high school bully after he began tormenting him again online as an adult.

** {{Discussed}} and {{averted}} by Sarkar in ''The Terminal Experiment''. He calls out Peter on multiple occasions for assuming that he must believe in pseudoscience like near-death experiences and creationism because he is a religious Muslim. At one point he even says "Just because I'm religious does not mean I am an idiot."
** {{Zigzagged}} in ''Calculating God''. The antagonists are Christian terrorists and strict creationists bent on vandalizing the Burgess Shall display because in their minds it's use as strong evidence for evolution must mean it's a hoax. Both are dogmatic and none too bright. On the other hand, the aliens are perfectly intelligent, believing in God based on empirical evidence (without anything irrational like saying that evolution is a lie).
** Also avoided in ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'' where Mary and Louise are Catholics but competent scientists too, with the intelligence you would expect. While the book ultimately portrays religion [[ReligionIsWrong as false]] it doesn't claim they're fools for having believed in Catholicism.
* BigBrotherIsWatchingYou: Presented as a ''good'' thing in ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'' and the ''Literature/WWWTrilogy''. Sawyer also believes this in RealLife. It should be mentioned though that in the Neanderthal Parallax, the watching is done automatically; an individual's implanted Companion computer records everything he or she does, sending that recording to a storage facility where only you can access your records, or the authorities if a judge orders it after you've been accused of a crime.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Sawyer is known for making his aliens truly ''alien''. Tosoks in ''Illegal Alien'' have a different bodily structure from most Earth beings, with radial symmetry, for instance-they have one arm at the ''back''. Plus their females have four uteruses, and usually are impregnated by an equal number of males in turn. It's thus much more common to have half siblings. ''Calculating God'' also has two different alien species which have entirely dissimilar bodies from ours.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: The Tosoks in ''Illegal Alien'' have females with four wombs, so that group sex is the norm for them, with four males impregnating each. Half-siblings are thus also far more common as a result of it. Occasionally though one male inseminates all four of a female's wombs. Their term for God possibly even reflects that-one human, learning this, reflects how they thought the Tosoks were saying "Foremother" but it may have really been "''Four''mother".
* BlackHumor: Sim!Sandra's last words in ''The Terminal Experiment'' as she shuts down the power grid, disabling both her (temporarily) and the murderous [[spoiler:Control]] Sim (permanently) in the process, are "think of me as a Circuit Court Judge."
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Caused a disastrous NoodleIncident at a Christmas Party in ''FlashForward''
* BrainUploading:
** The premise of ''Red Planet Blues'', ''Mindscan'', and to a lesser extent ''The Terminal Experiment.''

** ''The Downloaded'' revolves around previously uploaded minds who have since been re-downloaded into their original bodies. The novel centers around two groups of people who were uploaded - astronauts, whose minds were uploaded while their bodies were supposed to travel into space, with them reawakening in their original body at the destination, and prisoners, who were supposed to serve their 20 year sentences in the uploaded world while only ten months passed in reality. For various reasons, both go horribly wrong and everyone reawakens, on Earth, about 500 real-world years later, four subjective ones for the astronauts and 24 (four years longer than their sentence) for the prisoners. This kicks off the plotline, with the characters (with one exception, a roboticist astronaut who can't download because his skull was caved in) back in their original bodies.
* CanadaEh: Notably {{averted}} in his novels, which are often set in Canada and/or feature Canadians, as Sawyer himself is a Canadian who knows better (although some of the stereotypes ''are'' brought up, usually by American characters).

* CocaPepsiInc: In ''Rollback'', Coca-Cola and Pepsi merged at some point in the mid-21st century. The protagonist is delighted he never has to hear a waiter apologetically ask "Is Pepsi okay?" ever again.
* DeusExMachina: This happens literally in ''Calculating God'' when near the end God appears to save the three known species from destruction by a supernova.
* DoAndroidsDream: ''Mindscan'' features a technology for copying a human personality into immortal android bodies. The elderly and people suffering from terminal illnesses undergo this process, being replaced with the copy before leaving for an extralegal moon base to live out their last days in luxurious retirement. However [[spoiler:when one is sued by her son to get her property, claiming she's legally "dead" and another of the recipients finds that a cure has just been discovered for his condition and wants to take his old life back from his copy]], the legal rights and personhood of the android duplicates is brought into question.
* DoomsdayDevice: In ''The Oppenheimer Alternative'', Oppie comes across a list of proposed nuclear devices, each listing its power and proposed means of detonation. The location for the final one is simply listed as "Backyard", to which Oppie has a moment of FridgeHorror when he realizes the device would destroy the entire world, so there would be no need to transport it before using it.

* FunWithAcronyms: {{Lampshaded}} in ''Starplex''. The human characters do this all the time, but the aliens frequently point out how annoying this is - apparently their languages never had such a concept. One alien character even refuses to call the ship's computer PHANTOM because that too is an acronym. The aliens really draw the line at acronyms within acronyms, such as an attempt to [[ToiletHumour name the mobile waste collection machines PHART, short for "PHANTOM ambulatory remote toilet."]]
* GodwinsLaw: {{Invoked}}, {{discussed}}, and arguably {{justified}} in ''Quantum Night''. The main character compares [[spoiler:the mass killing of Latinos in the Southern and Southwestern United States]] to the Holocaust. After his colleague immediately claims he has lost the argument, he complains that Godwin implied the Holocaust was a unique event and nothing of its magnitude could ever happen again, when in fact [[spoiler:it is happening again in the story, only with Latinos instead of Jews.]] The coiner of the term himself has said comparisons like this (i.e. modern mass murders with the Holocaust) are appropriate, however. It's just when an opponent is compared with the Nazis over ''anything'' that the law actually applies.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: {{Discussed}} in ''The Terminal Experiment'' and ''Mind Scan''. The former has proof of the human soul weigh into the debate (especially given it happens after abortion's allowed in the US). In the latter, ''Roe vs. Wade'' was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Characters who have had abortions in these novels are sympathetic.
* HarsherInHindsight: A rare InUniverse example in ''Triggers''. After the White House is destroyed by terrorists, one of the characters wonders what will happen to an {{Expy}} of ''Series/TheWestWing'', considering it's set there. It continues filming, at least for the time being, a fact which is critical to the plot.
* HaveAGayOldTime: {{Averted}} in ''Starplex'' when one of the aliens aboard the spaceship suggests naming the newly-discovered dark matter creatures "darkies", but is quickly shot down by the humans.

** {{Discussed}} in ''Triggers'', where the US President is a closet atheist. Following numerous terrorist attacks by fanatical Muslims in the US, culminating with his own near-assassination, he decides to destroy Pakistan with nuclear missiles for harboring terrorists. An old woman finds out about his nonbelief and this plan, trying to convince him that doing so will not only cause him to be viewed as a monster, but later people would say no one but an atheist could have ever done such a terrible thing (he had planned to admit his atheism after leaving the White House).
** Also averted by Caitlin and her dad in ''Literature/WWWTrilogy''. Both are simply nice, ordinary people. Caitlin's best friend is a Muslim, whose beliefs she's respectful of.

* HumansAreWhite: Sawyer makes a specific point to avert this in his work, and explains that it's why he specifies even white characters' race, so readers are clear about it.

* InformedAttribute: The Wreeds in ''Calculating God'' supposedly evolved brain structures that are incapable of comprehending numbers larger than 46, but to whom the solutions to ethical quandaries that vex humans are as obvious and self-evident as simple arithmetic are to us. When they're asked to actually ''answer'' our ethical quandaries, however, they're unable to, just as there's no way to explain mathematical truths in a way they're capable of understanding, so we never get to hear their insights.
* InhumanableAlienRights: On the opposite end of the scale, we have Robert J. Sawyer's novel ''Illegal Alien'', in which one of the first aliens to visit the Earth is arrested and put on trial on suspicion of murdering a human. The aliens are quite obviously more technologically advanced than humanity, and could very well wipe out the entire planet if they decided to, so only the most radical humans oppose giving the suspect a fair trial. That said, there is some argument over whether an alien can be considered "sane" by human standards, and several times it's brought up that most people think of the aliens as interchangeable and identical rather than varied individuals. That being said, it's also made clear, at least by some, that the alien's rights aren't ''greater'' than those of humans. A Black reverend and civil rights activist (think Al Sharpton) confronts the Los Angeles District Attorney to point out he would have sought the death penalty against a Black man had he killed the (white) victim under similar circumstances, and he'd better not be seen as giving more value to an alien's life than a Black human's. [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that most of the aliens do not regard ''humans'' as having any rights, and planned to destroy us as a potential threat, which the alien suspect foiled.]]
* IntelligentGerbil: Sawyer is the TropeNamer for this.
* LawEnforcementInc:
** The short story "The Hand You're Dealt" is about a case of murder on a habitat that has no government, only private services. The protagonist is a detective with a private police company called The Cop Shop. There are apparently multiple such businesses-"Spitpolish, Inc" is mentioned as a competitor that has uniformed cops, which his doesn't.
---> I took my pocket forensic scanner and exited The Cop Shop. That was its real name-no taxes in Mendelia, after all. You needed a cop, you hired one.

** The orangutan joke in ''Quantum Night''
** Several future "historical" events mentioned in the novels fit this trope

*** An odd {{Subversion}} in ''Flashforward'' where many of the incidents seen in the visions would certainly qualify, except that there's no indication if they ever came to pass. Most notably, Donald Trump is said to be building a pyramid in the middle of the Nevada desert to house his remains which would be ten meters taller than the Pyramid of Giza. Given what happened to Trump in RealLife in the time gap spanned by the visions, this is either HilariousInHindsight, HarsherInHindsight, or quite possibly a bit of both, depending on your perspective.

** {{Subverted}} with the Neanderthals in ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'' books, who never had a concept of an afterlife or gods to begin with due to different brain structures [[spoiler: (though played straight with the finale of the trilogy, when a magnetic pole reversal affects humans' minds by first stimulating then later eliminating paranormal, mystical or religious beliefs. With them gone, peace breaks out in the Middle East, among other improvements)]].
** It's also inverted with the aliens in ''Calculating God'' who are more technologically advanced than humanity but firmly believe in a creator on the basis of scientific evidence. It's the atheist human protagonist who slowly has to adjust and accept it.
* PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs: ''End Of An Era'' features time travelers who pop into the end of the Cretaceous to discover that Earth's gravity was purposefully modified by Martians in order to breed biological war machines (aka dinosaurs) against a fifth planet in the Solar System orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. [[spoiler:In the end, the scientists cause the KT Extinction Event by turning off the anti-gravity generators, simultaneously killing off both the dinosaurs and the Martians. Essentially, phlebotinum created the dinosaurs. Taking it away killed them.]]
* PortalNetwork: ''Starplex'' features a network of portal points spanning the entire universe. All the points begin dormant but come online whenever something touches them. Sometimes they're opened by random debris, but most are activated deliberately by advanced civilizations. The points are only detectable using subspace technology, which means no race can activate its point and join the galactic community until it reaches the technical level of at least basic FTL. [[spoiler:It actually turns out that the points are time portals, created by engineers from the future so they could visit the past. The fact that they're spatially connected, facilitating galactic commerce and infrastructure, is really just a side effect.]]

** Afsan proves the object called the Face of God is really the planet which the Quintaglio's world (a moon) orbits. Toroca later also shows that the idea of Quintaglios being directly created by God is wrong too, as he discovers evolution..

* SelfInflictedHell: {{Implied}} in [[http://sfwriter.com/blog/?p=2682 Sawyer's first work ever]], a short story published in ''The Village Voice''.
* ShoutOut:

** Apparently, several of Sawyer's novels exist InUniverse in other novels. For instance, in ''Triggers'', one character quotes ''Calculating God'', while in ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'', one character recalls reading a serialized version of ''Illegal Alien'' and notes how the situation there is different than what is going on at that moment. In ''Quantum Night'', a story about a biomedical engineer finding scientific proof of the human soul is mentioned-i.e. the plot of his book ''The Terminal Experiment''.

* ThreeLawsCompliant: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''The Downloaded''. The astronaut crew's roboticist, Mikahil Sidorov, fiercely believes in the Three Laws, being from the same small town where Isaac Asimov was born. One robot disagrees [[spoiler:and smashes Sidorov's skull in so he can't re-download and oppress his fellow robots when they reach their destination. (Sidorov, being uploaded at the time, is unharmed.)]] The robot explains the Three Laws, when applied to sentient, thinking robots like himself or the fictional ones in Asimov's work, amount to nothing more than slavery, pointing out that if you replace the word "robot" with "slave" and "human" with "white person", it could easily have been a plantation owner's creed.

Robert James Sawyer [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CM]] (born April 29, 1960) is a Canadian ScienceFiction author. His novels mainly deal with the conflict between science and mysticism/religion.

* ThreeLawsCompliant: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''The Downloaded''. The astronaut crew's roboticist, Mikahil Sidorov, fiercely believes in the Three Laws, being from the same small town where Isaac Asimov was born. One robot disagrees [[spoiler:and smashes Sidorov's skull in so he can't re-download and oppress his fellow robots when they reach their destination. (Sidorov, being uploaded at the time, is unharmed.)]] The robot explains the Three Laws, when applies to sentient, thinking robots like himself or the fictional ones in Asimov's work, amount to nothing more than slavery, pointing out that if you replace the word "robot" with "slave" and "human" with "white person", it could easily have been a plantation owner's creed.

* ThreeLawsCompliant: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''The Downloaded''. The astronaut crew's roboticist, Mikahil Sidorov, fiercely believes in the Three Laws, being from the same small town where Isaac Asimov was born. One robot disagrees [[spoiler:and smashes Sidorov's skull in so he can't re-download and oppress his fellow robots when they reach their destination. (Sidorov, being uploaded at the time, is unharmed.)]] The robot explains the Three Laws, when applies to sentient, thinking robots like himself or the fictional ones in Asimov's work, amount to nothing more than slavery, pointing out that if you replace the word "robot" with slave" and "human" with "white person", it could easily have been a plantation owner's creed.

** The premise of ''Red Planet Blues'', ''Mindscan'' and to a lesser extent ''The Terminal Experiment.''

* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: One religious Muslim candidate for the space mission in ''Golden Fleece'' declines to make the trip, since he would need to pray five times per ''Earth'' day, which amounted to up to 120 times per ship day due to the effects of relativity. On the bright side, the Ramadan fast would only last a day or so rather than a whole month, but that was not enough to convince him. However, 1,349 other Muslims who did come seemed to find a way around these issues.

* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: One religious Muslim candidate for the space mission in ''Golden Fleece'' declines to make the trip, since he would need to pray five times per ''Earth'' day, which amounted to up to 120 times per ship day due to the effects of relativity. On the bright side, the Ramadan fast would only last a day or so rather than a whole month, but that was not enough to convince him.

** {{Zigzagged}} in ''Calculating God''. The antagonists are Christian terrorists who are strict creationists bent on vandalizing the Burgess Shall display because in their minds it's use as strong evidence for evolution must mean it's a hoax. Both are dogmatic and none too bright. On the other hand, the aliens are perfectly intelligent, believing in God based on empirical evidence (without anything irrational like saying that evolution is a lie).

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Discussed and Averted by Sarkar in ''The Terminal Experiment''. He calls out Peter on multiple occasions for assuming that he must believe in pseudoscience like near-death experiences and creationism because he is a religious Muslim. At one point he even says "Just because I'm religious does not mean I am an idiot."

** The protagonist of ''Calculating God'' is an atheist scientist who's skeptical when an alien species who visit Earth say they have empirical evidence that God exists, but he accepts this after being able to assess this. He's a nice, ordinary man.