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Humans and Robots

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Humans and Robots
Human views on Robots The world often sees robots as a potential threat to citizens, whether through fear of something different or concern about economic risks (Bryfonski 50). However, through the words of Asimov in nine compelling short robot stories, he showed that human beings often misunderstood the robot actions in various situations. In I, Robot, Isaac Asimov made use of the short stories to connect the idea of human and robot interactions in this new futuristic civilization to show the helpfulness of robots and the need for more ethical, moral responsibility from mankind.
In Asimov 's book, the robot and character all have their own part. Throughout the stories, Dr. Susan Calvin is revealed as the world 's only "robopsychologist". She investigates the behavior and thought of robots. She served as a metaphor for Calvinism. One major point was emphasized was predestination (Bryfonski 51). Predestination refers that God has foreordained every event throughout time without end, including the final salvation of mankind (Wikipedia). At the end of the book, she said, " I saw it from the beginning, when the poor robot couldn 't speak, to the end, when they stand between mankind and destruction" (Asimov 272). It is possible that Dr. Calvin had predicted that the future of mankind would eventually comes to its end by the destructive force of machines. By putting Dr. Calvin into the story, Asimov showed the how of human and machine relationships is importance to him. In one of the short stories, Robbie is positronic robot who is as innocent as Adam (Bryfonski 50). Robbie is controlled by the positronic brain. The brain illustrated the fundamental problem of original sin, natural depravity and the puritan works ethic (Bryfonski 50). Robbie is a mute but quick to respond robot. Base in the story, he is a babysitter for a little girl named Gloria through whom he later proved his trustworthiness to the family whereas in another story, Nestor (NS-2) is



Cited: Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004. Bryfonski, Dedria (Editor). Contemporary Literature Criticism. 9 vols. Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, Michigan. 48422. Bardi, Jennifer. "Invitation to Private Virtual Reality." The Humanist. November-December. 2006. Pages 44 –46. Cerrito, Joann and Dimauro, Lauri (Editors). Modern American Literature. Volume I. St. James Press, Mi, Farrington Hills, 1990. Clarke, Roger. "Asimov 's Law of Robotics, Implication for Information Technology." March 19, 2007. . Seiler, Edward. Isaac Asimov Home Page. < http://www.asimovonline.com/>. "I, Robot." Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. www.Wikipedia.com. Short, Sue. "The measure of a Man? Asimov 's Bicentennial Man, Star Trek 's Data, and being human" Extrapolation Summer, 2003: 209.

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