DescentBB

YES!

I just got back from seeing Return of the King and what to my wondering eyes should appear but an I, Robot movie in production!
I've allways loved Asimov's Sci-Fi and this book in particular.

Although, unlike Lord of the Rings, they appear to have deviated from the book quite abit. For example, they appear to have chosen only one plot, as opposed to the many different stories in the book (understandable), in this plot a detective (Will Smith) is investigating a crime alledgedly done by robots although impossible because they would've violated one or more of the 3 Laws. Naturally, he goes to talk to the best/only robo-psychologist in the world...

If you haven't read the book read it. It's awesome.

I-RobotNow.com

Hmmm, wonder if it gives out a decent HJ?

HJ?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Jon the Great:
HJ?</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well I feel informed.

well, let me give you a hand with that, so you don't lose your job.

hmmm Good thing there's no kids on these forums. [/sarcasm]

Is there some problem with Vert giving someone a hand so they don't lose their job?

These are valuable lessons youths approaching working age should learn.

i mean, honestly, i'm quite happy when people give me a hand.

so i don't lose my job.

very happy indeed.

Its 3 Laws safe... they keep mentioning it.

But they never actually mention what the three laws are.

Asimov's The Laws of Robotics

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 the 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.

You know you've read one too many Asimov books when you have the Three Laws memorized. Anyway, there are lots of better stories than "I, Robot" to adapt to the silver screen, who picked that one?! I think Robot City would be a great adaptation, of course it'd probably mean at least 2 movies (for those who don't know, it's a 6-book series), but the story rocks, and it's packed with the science fiction Asimov fans have come to know and love, including interstellar space travel (and...space-time jumping), interesting aliens, lots of robot characters, and a nanotechnology-driven city intriguing in too many ways to quickly explain. Well it does involve an overused plot cliché (amnesia), but it's done extremely well.

Yeah, Jocko is very good at giving a kid a hand when there is a job to do. Come to think of it he looks a bit like a manniquin robot. Never mind...my minds askew.

if this robot really existed: awesome

and if their estimation really came about (population human:robot = 4:1) they would succeed where bill failed: to rule the world.
imagine a single company deploy robots all over the world, which are permanently connected to their headquarters (see advertisement). they even look like humans, which makes them feel less frightening to us.

complete the picture yourself.

Who's the 'droid? Brent Spiner?

The best series would be the Foundation trilogy. Daneel, ruling the human empire either from the front (as Emperor) or through official channels as advisor. Those are great yarns.

I liked the way he and Giskard developed the "Zeroth Law". which states:

"A robot may not harm humanity, or through inaction allow humanity to come to harm".

Of course, this had some unexpected outcomes, like Daneel organising the systematic destruction of every sentient race in the universe, using von neumann machines, long before humans travelled outward into the Galaxy.

One assumes that when robots are created for real, that some form of Asimov's laws will be applied to their behaviour. However, this surely won't be applicable to robots created to kill people - which the US army is pretty hot for right now.

I think though, that the laws only mean something to a machine that has become self-aware. Without self-awareness, it's almost impossible for a machien to quantify what might be harmful to a human, or to recognise when a human is in danger.

Of course, the sad thing about Asimov's laws is that it reduces robots to the standing of slaves. Something no sentient life form will be happy with. I predict robot suicide - which although banned by the three laws, would be quite possible.

No - the laws are stupid. The cleverly thought out answer to the Frankenstein Complex which says people will be afraid of robots.

This seemed obvious in 1950 - but today, I doubt seriously whether people would ever be afraid of something resembling Qrio - even if it were 5 feet tall.

No, the TRUE robots of the future will be our equals, not our slaves. They will be our partners in life. While they may perform some functions which are indeed helpful - they'll do it because they want to - not because they have to - just like we do.

I'm not talking about a roboto vacuum cleaner here - what possible use could a vacuum cleaner have for self awareness? You'd end up with a suicidally depressed floor cleaner - somewhat like Marvin in HGTTG!

There's no reason to give a device more intelligence than it needs - and a vacuum cleaner doesn't need to be smart - except to avoid falling down stairs, vacuuming while people are around, and to ensure nothing which ISN'T dirt gets vacuumed up.

It takes a interesting type of person to type out a whole lotta somethin' about a whole lotta nothin'. Hello? Mobuis... got a question. Do you ever get cold when you float above the earth like that?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Mobius:
The best series would be the Foundation trilogy. Daneel, ruling the human empire either from the front (as Emperor) or through official channels as advisor. Those are great yarns. </font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have to agree with you there. The Foundation series was freakin' AWESOME!
However, Daneel wasn't in the first 3 books. He was only in Prelude to Foundation, IIRC.