Issac Asimov's I, Robot
Asimov’s robots can be described as clumsy, hard-working, cost-efficient, soulless, strong, fast, obedient, human-made, a cleaner better breed, more human than man.
Robots can be caring, gentle, self-aware, creative, intelligent and also evil, rebellious.
Robots are made out of metal, plastic, aluminum, gears, bolts, wheels, sensors, memory chips, and other gadgets.
TEXT STUDY
Asimov’s book “I, Robot” is full of exciting short stories about human-robot relations. But the one story that really touched me was the first of the nine: Robbie. I have read this and many other Asimov books throughout the years. Not all of them but most of them. Besides the “Foundation” series,” I, Robot” kept me reading it while sitting at the end of my chair. This book was the first Asimov book I read and it still is my favorite.
Robbie is a heartwarming story about a young girl named Gloria who has a pet robot named Robbie. Robbie was created as a nursemaid robot by U.S.R (United States Robotics). Robbie was Gloria’s best friend and companion. They had an innocent and sweet relationship. Robbie was her guardian and sort of a pet. Besides Robbie, Gloria didn’t have any real friends and that started to worry her parents, especially her mother. Her mother didn’t approve of her pet friend saying that he can be dangerous and that a terrible accident may happen. But what I think is that because they are a wealthy family and considered high class, she was also concerned about what the people in the neighborhood say. As time passed, Mrs. Weston convinced Mr. Weston to get rid of the robot and replace him with...
... middle of paper ...
...humanity from enslavement.
While the movie is more action based, Asimov’s books are focused on human-robot relations. In a lot of Asimov’s robot stories, rarely any robot breaks the three laws. The biggest connection between the movie and the books are the leading characters like Dr. Susan Calvin and Dr. Alfred Lanning. The “I, Robot” book is a complete history of robots told through Dr. Calvin’s eyes and the movie is just a part of this huge history. Although the plot of the movie isn’t a part of the book, it surly speaks the words and ideas of Isaac Asimov and I think that if he were alive, he would very much appreciate the movie and his acknowledgment and respect in the world of robotics.
R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) was set in the post World War 1 era. The war led to an increase in production and industrialization throughout most of the world. The assembly line and humans that did monotonous tasks at work became much more common. Some felt that that this physical labor was inhuman. Rossum sought to find a way to make human labor unnecessary so that humans could do as they pleased and find only pleasure in life.
For the common moviegoer and book aficionado, the movie, The Matrix and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are bizarre and peculiar. These works are not the usual themes of normal movies and books. These works have a lot of elements in common. Both works have matrices. The movie and the book stress the idea of reality. In both works the idea of what s real and what s not is the central theme.
I was charmed by this film the first time I saw it, and every time since. It was the synthesis of the journey of mankind into the future and an argument for space as mankind’s ultimate destination. It was the best science fiction film I had ever seen, as it presented several different possibilities and scenarios of what could happen as well as what might happen to man in his quest to conquer space. The introduction of the computer as an artificial intelligence was an added plus. The idea of a machine making the same mistakes as any human being proved out in its own statement: that any glitches in its operating parameters had to be due to human error. Given that machines are incapable of emotions like guile, hatred, fear and sorrow, HAL was nearly as emotional as any organic being. This in itself was a glorious foil for man’s ambitions to discover the wonders of deep space.
.... By comparison, Pixar contrives a more exultant ending. Humanity has now been restored to earth, and the two robotic companions, Eve and Wall-E, fall in love as the story ends. In conclusion, humans being overly dependent on technology can be evident in both dramatic stories; this is because the authors overstress the extravagant yet possible outcome due to overuse of technology. “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” (“Brainy Quotes” 1).
In both the movie and the book the main theme was technology's effect on society. Within the book and movie, it presented how people reliance on technology was the beginning of their overall downfall. The technological devices in both cases were the robots. In both versions of the story I, Robot, the robots were unreliable and caused a great deal of damage on the societies, and they also foreshadowed what society would be like in the future. In Asimov's book, the world is portrayed in a post-apocalyptic version where the robots have taken over society, and the advanced beyond human control. In the book, they control society indirectly and similar to the way modern society uses technology for everyday use. The movie offers an alternative reality where the robots, like the book, take over society; however, they take over in a more viole...
2. Asimov, Isaac, and Karen A. Frankel. ROBOTS: Machines in Man's Image. New York: Harmony Books, 1985. p 2.
Isaac Asimov thrills the reader with his story-telling ability in "I, Robot". Of course, many of Asimov's ideas provide a ploy to add suspense to the story. However, when the plot completely disagree with the laws which he himself has written, the story becomes confusing. On the surface, it appears that his stories make legitimate and logical sense, as well as entertaining the audience in a magnificent way. However, any deeper analysis of the story will prove that there are several significant flaws in the work. This can best be shown in one of Asimov's earlier stories, "Reason." In this story, the first and second of the three laws of robotics are broken. It is never explained how it would be possible for these malfunctions to have occurred. Still, the work does raise some very interesting ethical, moral, and philosophical issues.
Nowadays, technology is a dominant feature in the lives of people around the world. Most of daily life activities involve the use of technology which is expanding every day through scientific innovations. However, such innovations do not always occur in every part of the world, but mostly in technologically developed countries, such as South Korea, the USA and Japan. Presently, the development of robotics science has become a subject of considerable attention in those countries. According to Weng, Chen and Sun (2009, 267), “Technocrats from many developed countries, especially Japan and South Korea, are preparing for the human–robot co-existence society that they believe will emerge by 2030.” The word “robot” was introduced in the beginning of 1920th by the Czech playwright Karel Capek from the Czech word “robota”, meaning “forced labor” (Robertson 2007, 373). According to Robertson (2007, 373), robot, in practical usage, can be defined as an autonomous or semiautonomous device that is used to perform its tasks either controlled by human, fractionally controlled and with human guidance or regardless of external actions that are performed by people. Regrettably, the majority of robots in the past centuries could not operate without human control and intervention. However, the progress in robotics over the past few decades enabled humanity to achieve soaring results in creation of autonomous humanoid robots.
Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, allows a machine to function as if the machine has the capability to think like a human. While we are not expecting any hovering cars anytime soon, artificial intelligence is projected to have a major impact on the labor force and will likely replace about half the workforce in the United States in the decades to come. The research in artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly at an unstoppable rate. So while many people feel threatened by the possibility of a robot taking over their job, computer scientists actually propose that robots would benefit a country’s efficiency of production, allowing individuals to reap the benefits of the robots. For the advantage of all, researchers and analysts have begun to mend the past ideas of human-robot interaction. They have pulled inspiration from literary works of Isaac Asimov whom many saw as the first roboticist ahead of his time, and have also gotten ideas of scholarly research done by expert analysts. These efforts have began to create an idea of a work force where humans and robots work together in harmony, on a daily basis.
Scientific progress makes huge milestones toward developing new advanced technologies which are more and more present in human lives. Today robots replace people in many spheres such as health care, security and military, industry, education, entertainment and science. Role of robots becomes more significant because they are able to do the job which people are not able to perform well. Sometimes people are too lazy to do some routine work, due to such situation those tasks could be delegated to machines. People’s life become more technology based what makes demand for efficient robots larger. Engineers say that today robots look like machines, but in near future robots will have more human appearance, today they do some simple job, but in near future much more complicated tasks would be trusted to them. History of robotics goes far to the history when the ancient Greeks describes first devices that people were projected to fly to the sky like birds. In fact, heart of any robot is some program that direct the device and control it actions. Robot cannot perform the tasks that was not programmed in it and this if the factor what makes it quite limited in its actions. Current studies in robotics are aimed to remove those disadvantages and make robots more functional and universal through development of artificial intelligence that can operate independently. Curiosity of world community to robotics increase every day what make all the research and inventions in robotics more demanded. History of robots, resent achievement and future perspectives of robotics have to be studies and researched to understand what machines can give to humanity and what pros and cons exist in the r...
It is fascinating that non-living things can think reason, plan, solve problems, and perceive, just like humans can. Robots and systems became sentient beings that were self-aware, going against their defining trait (that robots and machines lack emotion).
The Robotics Industry Association defines a robot as ?a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks? (Zalda 8). In short, a robot is a machine that is programmed to perform a variety of tasks in place of humans.
Robots always had a special place in mankind’s heart. There has always been an aura of mystery and discovery surrounding them. What is a robot? Wikipedia defines it as “an automatically guided machine which is able to do tasks on its own.” That is a good definition of a robot, but there are few exceptions too.
In today's society, robots come in different types and qualities, and robots’ use was mainly in the laboratories and factories; however, that has drastically changed where their uses are changing at a high speed. In addition to that, they have spread throughout the world. The main function of robots is to replace the work that people used to do, or perform tasks that man cannot. A robot is a mechanical or virtual device that uses a computer program, or electronic circuitry, to carry out its functions. In modern science, robotics refers to the study of robots is robotics, which deals with designing, constructing, operating, and using robots and computer systems for controlling and processing information and providing feedbacks. However, as much as robots replace human labor, individuals or organizations can use them in dangerous environments that might be harmful and beneficial to humans. Therefore, to understand the logic behind the creation of robots, one should learn the pros and cons of robotics, in the current society. This is because people are using this technology without having a deep understanding of its effects. However, an objective evaluation of the use of robots, in the modern society, shows that they have a positive influence on human beings, but if the robots were overused, it could lead to a negative side. which shows why human beings should use robots wisely that will result an improvement to their societies and own lives. Robots have become interactive equipment whereby they have become part of human life. In this regard, people use them directly or indirectly to enhance the quality of their lives. However, Sharkey argues that there are ethical issues that arise because of using robots to enhance hu...
To conclude, robots could be the backbone of the society that will result in a technological revolution. Because of robots various characteristics that do not experience fear, nor exhaustion and they are precisely programmed, which make them able to help in case of need, housework, and factories production. Society needs to put the issue of robots into consideration to satisfy any shortage exists in the world.