Asimov's robots are artificial, mechanical, humanoid bodies with conscious "positronic" brains.
"...a versatile machine with a program capable of some learning and much adaptation, nevertheless just a robot and unaware."
-Poul Anderson, The Stars Are Also Fire (New York, 1995), 5, pp. 64-65.
In the third case, "learning" has to mean "reprogramming," not conscious learning. "...just a robot and unaware..." denies the Capekian and Asimovian meanings of "robot." Capek coined the term.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We do see conscious, self aware, self learning AIs in some of the earlier works of Anderson, such as Muddlehead (in the Falkayn stories), and the ancient AI on Wayland in A CIRCUS OF HELLS. I have wished more than once had given us a few more pages about that AI!
Sean
Sean,
Anderson has AIs, including in this series, but it was his use of the word "robot" that I was focusing on.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I was thinking of robots as being AIs in the Asimovian sense. Anderson's use of "robot" struck me as strange for a reader, like me, who has read Asimov's robot stories.
Sean
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