Preview

Humans and Robots

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2364 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Humans and Robots
Human views on Robots The world often sees robots as a potential threat to citizens, whether through fear of something different or concern about economic risks (Bryfonski 50). However, through the words of Asimov in nine compelling short robot stories, he showed that human beings often misunderstood the robot actions in various situations. In I, Robot, Isaac Asimov made use of the short stories to connect the idea of human and robot interactions in this new futuristic civilization to show the helpfulness of robots and the need for more ethical, moral responsibility from mankind.
In Asimov 's book, the robot and character all have their own part. Throughout the stories, Dr. Susan Calvin is revealed as the world 's only "robopsychologist". She investigates the behavior and thought of robots. She served as a metaphor for Calvinism. One major point was emphasized was predestination (Bryfonski 51). Predestination refers that God has foreordained every event throughout time without end, including the final salvation of mankind (Wikipedia). At the end of the book, she said, " I saw it from the beginning, when the poor robot couldn 't speak, to the end, when they stand between mankind and destruction" (Asimov 272). It is possible that Dr. Calvin had predicted that the future of mankind would eventually comes to its end by the destructive force of machines. By putting Dr. Calvin into the story, Asimov showed the how of human and machine relationships is importance to him. In one of the short stories, Robbie is positronic robot who is as innocent as Adam (Bryfonski 50). Robbie is controlled by the positronic brain. The brain illustrated the fundamental problem of original sin, natural depravity and the puritan works ethic (Bryfonski 50). Robbie is a mute but quick to respond robot. Base in the story, he is a babysitter for a little girl named Gloria through whom he later proved his trustworthiness to the family whereas in another story, Nestor (NS-2) is



Cited: Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004. Bryfonski, Dedria (Editor). Contemporary Literature Criticism. 9 vols. Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, Michigan. 48422. Bardi, Jennifer. "Invitation to Private Virtual Reality." The Humanist. November-December. 2006. Pages 44 –46. Cerrito, Joann and Dimauro, Lauri (Editors). Modern American Literature. Volume I. St. James Press, Mi, Farrington Hills, 1990. Clarke, Roger. "Asimov 's Law of Robotics, Implication for Information Technology." March 19, 2007. . Seiler, Edward. Isaac Asimov Home Page. < http://www.asimovonline.com/>. "I, Robot." Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. www.Wikipedia.com. Short, Sue. "The measure of a Man? Asimov 's Bicentennial Man, Star Trek 's Data, and being human" Extrapolation Summer, 2003: 209.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Cited: Perkins, George, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th. New York City: McGrawHill, 2009. Print.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explanation: This is a Contrast Contradiction because these robots were made and programmed to protect the human race and to provide a stepping-stone for the Humans. Modern day humans had been killed by killer robots and people donated their embryos to freeze and program robots to care of these until Killer Robots were gone and then Bring the Human Race back to life after they had instigated the Robots to go rogue and instead, were trained to be nicer.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Holden Caulfield Controversy

    • 2569 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Mosaic 15.1 (Winter 1982): 129-140. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 138. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center.…

    • 2569 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    To be a person, according to Sparrow, a robot must be a moral agent. There are a few aspects to take into account in assessing moral agency. One of these is that a robot must be held morally…

    • 1376 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Isaac Asimov's I, Robot

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The robots are governed by 3 main laws: “1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm 2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law (Asimov…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Isaac Asimov envisioned a world in which robots would be as common as humans, he determined all of the ethics and morals that would bind these smart machines with three rules: “1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow it to come to harm, 2. A robot must always obey a human, unless this conflicts with the first law, 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as this doesn’t interfere with the first or second law” (Asimov, 1941). These three statements were baptized as the Three Laws of Robotics, and to the day they serve as a standard for robots and a goal for artificial intelligence researchers. But as the Laws were created in a time when people thought that by 2015 visiting Mercury would be a routine…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Given the wide variety of non-human entities – including, but not limited to, sentient animals, human brains, and artificial intelligence systems – it is particularly vital to establish coherent and impartial grounds for the attribution of personhood. Criteria that might form these grounds include the capability of a system to think, feel, understand emotions, interact with other agents, and function autonomously in some sense. Rothblatt’s creation, “BINA48”, is a robot which mirrors the “physical and mental reality of an actual human being”. As it can “express feeling” through “innate understanding”, I argue that this creates solid ground for why machines should have at least some legal protection. Although the device is not human, the fact that it can express emotions suggests that machines should be given legal rights.…

    • 2387 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Baym, Nina and Levine, Robert. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc. 2012…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol. 101. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Contemporary Literary Criticism Online. Web. 07 May…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Art History

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1. “Man can be turned into a robot by studying coercion and control, but can he be made to become a cheerful robot?”- Mills, Sociological Imagination…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Philosophy of I, Robot

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ‘I robot’ is a movie that depict the year 2035 which show robots with human qualities. Robots were made to protect humans and also to assist them in their daily activities. However, there was one special and unique robot name ‘Sonny’ that was specially created by Dr Lanny that had a lot more human qualities than the others including the ability to think on its own without being given a command, feel emotions and also to dream. Even though…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this day and age, new technology is everywhere, but it’s usually in the form of phones, computers, and, now, watches. However, we’re forgetting one, robots. Now, they’re still quite popular, but they’re mostly the ideals of science fiction worlds set so far into the future we’ve migrated to space. Is it really so farfetched of an idea, though, to think that maybe we could achieve that level? No, in fact and despite the spotlight being diverted away, we’re heading down the path to robo-world already. What a robot is and has been is quite a lenient description, but no one can deny how much they’ve already shaped our lives. According to the passage “Robots Long Ago” by Karen Brinkmann, “Today robots help people with everything from surgery…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ai and Robotics

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ever since I have read turing test, AI and robotics have always fascinated me. I always wondered how a computer can compete human intelligence. When the first robot, its name, was commercially launched my fascination turned into the passion to take up research in the subject. Thus, I took up AI & Robotics as my research topic.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article reminds me of the 2004 film “I, Robot” starring Will Smith. In this…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Killer robot

    • 1826 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Bibliography: Bowler, T. (2014, May 21). 'Killer robots ': Are they really inevitable? Retrieved June 27, 2014, from BBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27332130…

    • 1826 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics