Guthrie has said that Fireball might attack Earth by diving ships "'...on robot.'" (p. 372)
"[Kyra] had shuddered. First that robot must be programmed for suicide.
"But it wasn't like reprogramming a captive Guthrie. Was it? Machines didn't really have consciousness or free will or a wish to live. Did they?" (pp. 372-373)
Kyra should know the answers to all these questions yet she totally re-confuses the AI issue. A machine like a spaceship on autopilot does not have consciousness, free will or a wish to survive whereas a machine like an Asimovian robot with an artificial ("positronic") brain would be conscious. The robotic spaceships to which Guthrie refers are clearly in the first, not the second, of these two categories and Kyra should not be in any doubt on the matter. On the other hand, if there really were any doubt, then it would be morally wrong to program the ships for suicide dives - not just something to shudder about.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
While I agree with your reasoning here, Kyra might have been too stressed out and emotionally agitated to reason as you did. Not all of us will think clearly and logically in moments of stress or danger.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that humans tend to project personality onto things whether it's there or not.
Soldiers have been known, recently, to risk their lives to rescue the robots used on battlefields to investigate possibly bombs and so forth.
Good grief!
In my life, certain accidents have helped to move me in what I think was a good direction. I cannot help thinking that just maybe some beneficial being was directing the course of events. I say thank you, just in case.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I admit sometimes being tempted to think like that myself, esp. when playing against my old Radio Shack 2150L chess computer! Esp. when the darn thing keeps beating me. Yes, I know it's not CONSCIOUS, but sometimes it sure SEEMS to be. So I can see why those soldiers behaved as they did.
Ad astra! Sean
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