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Discuss the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence
Discuss the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence
Discuss the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence
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As the years progress, technology keeps on improving and is reaching to the point of artificial intelligence. Throughout the history, many inventors came up with innovative ideas to improve technology. However, these advancements have led to few ethical, environmental and moral issues which have affected the way the society behaves and what values it holds. This correlates to these short stories, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury, “City People” by Lydia Davis, and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. These short stories show how advancements in technology leads to reduction in our ability to think critically, and makes us feel lonely in a world full of machines with no sense of humanity. Technological …show more content…
Here, the house repeats this quote even after it has been burned. In this case, Bradbury shows how an automated machine continues to execute its pre-programmed tasks. Also, Bradbury is telling the society that automated things may overtake humanity as their ability to perform tasks is not easily destructible. Furthermore, Bradbury wrote this story in terms of how the modern society views and acknowledges its surroundings. Bradbury states, “… the silhouette in paint of a man moving a lawn … a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers … a small boy, hands flung into the air....” (23). Clearly, this quote shows how the modern society devalues humanity and objectifies it by stating that they were just “… five spots of paint.” In contrast, Bradbury gives the automated house more characteristics than the humans mentioned in this short story. The house was personified and given the ability to express its feelings during its demise. Clearly, this shows how machines can act like humans by being programmed to learn human …show more content…
The book, I, Robot, has a series of short stories which show how the robots develop the ability to think and perform the tasks for the humans. The robots, however, have laws which they cannot break. The laws are, “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm … A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law … A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. (Asimov 26). These laws seem promising and allows the reader to think that these robots must be harmless. However, the robots start to think for themselves as the story progresses. The robots begin to get irritated by the human commands. A robot named Cutie argues,
“Look at you … The material you are made of is soft and flabby, lacking endurance and strength, depending for energy upon the inefficient oxidation of organic material. I … am a finished product. I absorb electrical energy directly and utilize it with an almost one hundred percent efficiency. I am composed of strong metal, am continuously conscious, and can stand extremes of environment easily.” (Asimov
Ilya Varshavsky’s “Perpetual Motion” is the story of humanity’s relationship with technology. During a human council meeting, where humans superficially decide how their world will function, Class A robots demand equality with humanity. The human council is initially appalled, but after these robots explain they will supplement their labor with the labor of a new race of robots humanity grants their wish. Twenty years later, during a Class A robot council meeting, the topic of equality for Class B robots is introduced in a similar manner to the way Class A freedom was discussed. In order to grant equality to Class B robots, the Class A robots discuss the need to teach humans how to survive without them. They resolve to teach humans how
Ray Bradbury uses juxtaposition by contrasting this imaginary world that is set in the twenty-first century to very ordinary actions. Although the house is automated and again, empty, the kitchen is making the ideal breakfast for a family of four, and singing basic nursery rhymes such as “Rain, rain, go away...”. These humanlike events do not compare to the unoccupied house. The description of the house becomes more animalistic and almost oxymoronic when the, “rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal.” The almost constant cleaning of the tiny robot mice suggest that the previous household was very orderly and precise. Through Bradbury’s description of the outside of the house and its surroundings he indirectly tells the reader about the events that may have occurred. A burnt “silhouette” of the family imprinted on the west wall of the house is the only thing left of them. In the image each person is doing something picking flowers, moving the lawn, playing with a ball. This was a family having a good time, but little did they know the catastrophe they were about to experience would end their
Today’s world is full of robots that vacuum the floor and cars that talk to their drivers. People can ask their phones to send a text or play a song and a cheerful voice will oblige. Machines are taking over more and more tasks that are traditionally left to people, such as cleaning, navigating, and even scheduling meetings. In a world where technology is becoming increasingly human, questions arise about whether machines will eventually replace humankind altogether. In Ray Bradbury’s short stories, “The Veldt” and “August 2026,” he presents themes that technology will not only further replace the jobs of humans, but it will also outlast humankind as a whole. Although this is a plausible future, computers just cannot do certain human jobs.
Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, works in both unison and division with author Ray Bradbury, who wrote There Will Come Soft Rains. By comparing and contrasting these stories we are able to delegate how our current actions towards humanity and technology may, or even may not, affect the future Huxley and Bradbury feel strongly for. Both share a common goal to not only warn but help the reader reflect on the possible outcome of societal advancement.
First Law: A robot must never harm a human being or, through inaction, allow any human to come to harm.
Use of technology is expanding from day to day, more things in life are depending on machinery. Machines are meant to bring us a comfortable life, and technology is meant to enhance our living standard, yet. Half a century ago, Ray Bradbury issued an enlightenment in the short story “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rain”. In E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”, a similar enlightenment is made. Both edify people that things will go wrong when technology is dominant over humanity; our dependence on technology lead people lost humanity, lead people lost control of human creation, and eventually lead humanity to devastate. The didactic works at the level of form in Bradbury, while in Forester is works at the level of content.
Through the story the reader can hear the words of a speaking clock which are almost always in rhyme. The clock tells the absent family to go “off to school, off to work, run run, eight-one! (Bradbury Page 1)”, unaware of their tragic demise. This keeps up throughout the story, pacing the slow realization that the family won’t be listening to the clock anymore and adding to the theme of humanity’s loss going unnoticed. The whole house follows along with routine, cooking, cleaning, unaware of the fact that there’s no one to cook and clean for. All the way up until it was destroyed the house failed to notice the death of who it was built to
I vividly remembered on my elementary and high school years about my literature class. My teacher instructed us that story is considered a story if it is in prose form, has a character, and has a setting. That statement was greatly contradicted by the master lecturer Mr. Miguel Lizada. He remarked that the “conflict” makes a story. Although a story is written in prose form, but how about news reports, journals, and other scholarly works? A story is not accepted as a story if there is no character. In my mind maybe that the answer to the conflicting question, “What Makes a Story a Story?” but I’m so shocked because he argued that there are stories such as “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury that has no characters. I can’t believe even
In the short story, Bradbury states “Until this day, how well the house had kept its peace. How carefully it had inquired”(2). The fact that Bradbury used the phrase until this day , immediately implies that this event of the house caring for itself has been occurring for a long time. Bradbury demonstrates the American Nightmare through this sentence by showing that humanity is not need to keep the peace but actually obstructs it. This theme ruins the pivotal idea that the world revolves around humanity. Also by stating that the house itself had inquired, the distant object of the house is given humanity’s intellect and reasons which later leads to its destruction. Bradbury also states “ In the kitchen, an instant before the rain of fire and timber, the stove could be seen making breakfasts at a psychopathic rate”(4). Destruction through fire of the house is symbolic of the story’s hinted past of humanity being obliterated by nuclear warfare. The fire was caused by the house again mirroring humanity’s intellect which lead to its end. The oven is personified here by saying that it is completing an action without humanity’s help at a psychiatric rate. This urge to normalcy no matter the crazy situation is foreshadowed by the assumption that during the nuclear warfare mass hysteria was
The Martian Chronicles; There Will Come Soft Rains: Ray Bradbury, 1950 Introduction: California, August 2026, a fully automated household rouses although there is no one left awake. The rest of the local suburbia is little more than flattened, charred, shrapnel with a radioactive glow hanging overhead. Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) describes how once man has wiped itself out through nuclear war, nature will go on to reclaim everything as if nothing happened. (Bradbury, 1950)
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.
The technological field has advanced to something far more than what people could have imagined just a half a century ago. The technological revolution has changed the lifestyle of societies just as the Industrial revolution changed the lifestyle of Europe. Who would have imagined the Internet and computers in most homes, when a computer could barely fit into an entire building, much less intelligent machines? Artificial Intelligence is an intriguing technology that will shape the human lifestyle of the future. Restricting research and progress in the field is hardly a feasible task in today's world. More realistically, we should monitor and keep the technology in a realistic and safe progression.
Bradbury continuously hints at the human characteristic throughout the story, creating this “human-like” house that is still a machine. The house is literally alive; it has eyes, “memory tapes glided under electric eyes.” “the house had kept it’s peace. How carefully it had inquired, ‘Who goes there?’… bordered on mechanical paranoia.” All of these are personifications of the house and how it acts as a human would if left all alone.
AI, otherwise known as artificial intelligence, is a computer system programmed with tasks that usually require human intelligence. Programmed with specific instructions and code for tasks to do, AI is a step away from humans. Robots are mainly programmed to do tasks such as: putting cars together, building toys to be shipped and doing repetitive work humans would rather avoid. AI, though, is more than putting products together. The ethical dilemma of AI stems from the differences superintelligence has from humans. Because of AI’s capability of tasks, it might be the last invention made by humans. Reasons AI hovers above us in technological processes includes:
But later, robots start getting smarter and they take over every aspect of human life, meanwhile, people are forcibly stopped doing stuff by themselves. Finally robots dominated the human race, not in the way of military forces but in lifestyle behaviors. The story was interesting, yet it was also hilarious. Human’s intelligence creates technology, and they are created to serve humans. No matter how smart the technology is, they are still the intelligence of humans.