I, Robot

 The reading that best complimented our team’s overall theme and message presented throughout the poster board was entitled, “The Evitable Conflict.” This short story was written by Isaac Amisov, as it was first published in the June 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The work also later appeared in Amisov’s I, Robot collection, with continuous themes and features of the same characters.  

The premise of “The Evitable Conflict'' is set in the year 2052, and sees Earth divided into 4 different geographical regions. These individual reasons all have a powerful supercomputer managing its economy, and the plot centers around members of society who are casting doubt on the accuracy of the computer and its ability to properly carry out what it was programmed to do. The character Stephen Byerley, who has been a recurring character in Amisov’s works, thinks that mistakes made by the computer are directly to blame for economic inefficiency. 

There are many repetitive themes through Asimov’s writing that demonstrate his urgent need for humans to understand the complexity of technology and artificial intelligence. With this leap forward in robotics and machines, Asimov encourages a cautious tone regarding the aspect of their capabilities and rules they were created to follow. Both the movie we picked and the short story we read continue on the theme that while robots are created to follow laws, it is impossible to ensure they don’t break them. For example, in the short story, the Machine is accused of deliberately making mistakes to the state's economy, showing that it is capable of both emotions and the ability to deviate from the 3 laws. Similarly, in I, Robot, Vicki creates a Zeroth law, which allows her to protect humanity from home. In both instances, the robots have created their own set of laws to govern themselves by, and have emotional justifications as to why they strayed from their original laws. 

In effect, both Machines in our works chose to look past the first law of not inflicting any pain, but justify their position by stating they are attempting to stop potential pain and suffering in the future. This speaks to the duality of robots and AI, and helps reiterate the theme on our posterboard. Although robots are created to help and do no harm, both the movie and the book presented a tentative approach towards the control taken away from humans and placed into artificial intelligence . The sources and their stories demonstrated how robots can do more than what they were originally intended for, in both good and bad ways. The insinuation is that it is the responsibility of humans to ensure peace and prosperity among their own people before projecting these unsolved problems into something else.