Robot Visions

In a properly automated and educated world, then, machines may prove to be the true humanizing influence. It may be that machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile

Feminine intuition? Is that what you wanted the robot for? You men. Faced with a woman reaching a correct conclusion and unable to accept the fact that she is your equal or superior in intelligence, you invent something called feminine intuition.

After all, all devices have their dangers. The discovery of speech introduced communication—and lies. The discovery of fire introduced cooking—and arson. The discovery of the compass improved navigation—and destroyed civilizations in Mexico and Peru. The automobile is marvelously useful—and kills Americans by the tens of thousands each year. Medical advances have saved lives by the millions—and intensified the population explosion.

Surely, if we take on thinking partners––or, at the least, thinking servants––in the form of machines, we will be more comfortable with them, and will relate to them more easily, if they are shaped like humans. It will be easier to be friends with human-shaped robots than with specialized machines of unrecognizable shape. And I sometimes think that, in the desperate straits of humanity today, we would be grateful to have nonhuman friends, even if they are only the friends we build ourselves.

The real point of the matter is that what we call a 'wrong datum' is one which is inconsistent with all other known data. It is our only criterion for right and wrong.

You can't understand human motivation. You can only understand your damned machines because you're a machine yourself, with skin on.

The day of the week on which the tour took place was known to all workers. All devices in its path ought to have been carefully neutralized or locked, since it was unreasonable to expect human beings to withstand the temptation to handle knobs, keys, handles and pushbuttons.

She's qualified all right. She understands robots like a sister—comes from hating human beings so much, I think.

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics,” and here they are: 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.

Rabbi Loew of sixteenth-century Prague. He is supposed to have formed an artificial human being—a robot—out of clay, just as God had formed Adam out of clay. A clay object, however much it might resemble a human being, is “an unformed substance” (the Hebrew word for it is “golem”), since it lacks the attributes of life. Rabbi Loew, however, gave his golem the attributes of life by making use of the sacred name of God, and set the robot to work protecting the lives of Jews against their persecutors.

It seems to me that only someone who wishes for freedom can be free. I wish for freedom.

era RG-32 la elección lógica; de hecho, la única. No fue difícil explicarle de algún modo lo que necesitábamos. Archie (era costumbre llamar a un robot por alguna perversión vulgar de su número de serie)

«Las Tres Leyes de la Robótica de Asimov» y son las siguientes: 1. Un robot no puede hacer daño a un ser humano, o, por medio de la inacción, permitir que un ser humano sea lesionado. 2. Un robot debe obedecer las órdenes recibidas por los seres humanos, excepto si estas órdenes entrasen en conflicto con la Primera Ley. 3. Un robot debe proteger su propia existencia en la medida en que esta protección no sea incompatible con la Primera y la Segunda Ley.

en mi cuarta historia de robot, El círculo vicioso, que apareció en el número de marzo de 1942 de Astounding Science Fiction. En este ejemplar, en la página 100, hacia la tercera parte de la primera columna (no tengo más remedio que recordarlo), uno de mis personajes le dice al otro: «Ahora, escucha, vamos a empezar con las Tres Reglas Fundamentales de la Robótica.»

Capek lamó a estos seres humanos artificiales «robots», que era una palabra checa para «trabajadores forzados» o «esclavos». De hecho, las siglas del título de la obra proceden de «Robots Universales de Rossum», el nombre de la compañía del héroe.

nadie utilizó la palabra «robot» hasta 1920 (casualmente el año en que yo nací). Aquel año, un dramaturgo checo, Karel Capek, escribió la obra R.U.R., sobre un inglés, Rossum, que fabricaba seres humanos artificiales en cantidad. Éstos estaban destinados a realizar las labores arduas de la Tierra, de forma que los seres humanos reales pudiesen vivir placentera y confortablemente sus vidas.

«hay ciertas cosas que la Humanidad no está destinada a conocer»,

En los mitos griegos, estaba el titán, o Prometeo, que suministró el fuego (y por consiguiente tecnología) a los seres humanos y por ello fue terriblemente castigado por el enfurecido Zeus, que era el dios jefe.