h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Positronic robots definitely come in both genders - most of them seem to be male, but the short story "Feminine Intuition" is about a series of robots which were designed to be intuitive and given the name "Jane".

I think they are mostly self-aware. Were you thinking of Cutie (the one who invents a religion) when you said that only one is? It's vaguely implied that he was the first self-aware robot, but that story is set quite early in the history of robotics.

Do they really have only one user? The Second Law obliges them to obey all human beings, though they usually belong to a person or family and give their orders priority over everyone else's.

In Asimov's short robot stories, the robots were often feared or hated by most people (as you say) but in the novels they seem to be more taken for granted. Earth people didn't like them because they took jobs away from human beings, but Spacers liked them and had _lots_ of them .
Ekaterin.

I would add to the corrections.

The first sentance on Clark:
"Arguably the greatest living science fiction writer (at the time of writing), he is remembered best for 2001: A Space Odyssey and his series of 'Robot' stories that are attributed with setting the 'rules' for robot behaviour"
Seems to me better suited to Asimov, except the referance to 2001. The robot series of much fame is Asimov's, as are the the three laws of robotics. In my opinion Asimov is the far better writter as well, but that last is just opinion.

Math

The latest versions are good. Most of them were snapped up by PSBs.