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Chambers schrieb:
> Did you know that Isaac Asimov thought robots *should* enslave humanity,
> and perform ritual sacrifice of all female babies? It's coming out in a
> movie next week! And it's really cool, because it's based on his actual
> writings!
Uhm... Asimov wrote a /lot/ of speculations about "robotic societies";
you definitely have to distinguish between...
- how the societies in his stories worked
- what any individual story argued in favor of
- what Asimov personally expected future society to be like
- what Asimov personally believed best
If you examine Asimov's works carefully, I guess you'll find that as a
whole they appear to be an attempt to /discuss/ this topic, rather than
advocate one particular result.
For instance, some stories paint a negative picture of robots enslaving
humanity "for their own best" - a motif that the movie "I, Robot" picked
up pretty well.
Other stories paint a basically positive picture of robots "conspiring"
to secretly rule mankind, but discuss the difficulty those robots would
have to decide what really is best for mankind - both regarding the
structure of society, as well as how to direct mankind towards this goal.
I personally believe that just like the robots in his stories, Asimov
himself was searching for the "0th law" (the one that would place the
well-being of humanity above that of individual persons), and how to
balance it with the "1st law" (the one that places the well-being of
individuals above orders), while being well aware that he was far from
an answer; I think it is no coincidence that in his stories, he set the
discovery of an answer to this question in the far future, and portrayed
it as a collaborative efforts across generations.
... uh, wait - your posting was ironic, right?
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