Blog Set 5! Robots & Code, Oh My!

"Sizzling Saturn, we've got a lunatic robot on our hands!" Or do we? The old saying, "your perception is your reality" is brought to light in "Reason", an artfully written short story by Isaac Asimov. Cutie is the gold-standard definition of reason without a doubt. The logical formatting of the robot's actions conform to solidly known facts. This is the only path of intellect he knows. When Powell questions Cutie's telescopic observations outside the porthole, he receives a reply conducive to a child seeing a playground for the first time. How can a child know what to do with a swing or the function of a slide? Cutie tells Powell that space is a black sheet with lights on it, not realizing, through depth of educational exposure, that space is a rather vast and empty medium. I find Cutie's intelligence amusing as I imagine the frustration that Greg and Mike must have been feeling trying to reason with an expressionless and emotionless robot. I also like the religious references to Cutie and his unquestionable loyalty and to the Master. While Greg and Mike become ever more frustrated with the looming doom and destruction resulting from the electron storm, the climax of the story is resolved when Cutie produces the latest data from the previous day. The robot did exactly what it was meant to do; the Master was merely a concept of rule and implied direction for Cutie to continue to exists with function. I enjoyed reading this story and I wonder if one day, robots will be engineered to such a high level of efficiency that reason will doubt our very existence. I also can't help but compare how Cutie compares to robots from other famous science fiction tales. 

         Can love be transmitted through circuit boards and wires? The concept is a very interesting one to ponder. David's interaction with Teddy and comments such as, "are we real?" as well as his letters to Mummy saying, "I hope you're well just now. I love you..." bring to the surface a magnitude of questions as to how these reactions of emotion are being created in David's synthetic brain. The possibility that, in the near future, population controls and artificial intelligence can become a reality is scary to consider. Who would be in control of family decisions? Who would monitor the artificial intelligence? But the emotional toll that families would face with either the separation of a living human or an artificial one is perplexing to contemplate. Would the robot feel anxiety about leaving the only forms of interaction it has ever known? Would the humans feel sympathy for the destruction of the man-made psyche? This was an interesting read. I wonder if I could ever build a relationship with something that wasn't human and powered by artificial intelligence. My guess is that people would be brainwashed into believing their emotional interactions with artificially intelligent beings are authentic. Look at how we are so easily brainwashed into thinking the things that we think now? We must have a cell phone but no one had cell phones thirty years ago. They seemed to have survived without them.