Robots Elsewhere

I saw "I, Robot" over the weekend and will undoubtedly make some comments about it later. One of the reviewers, I think, pointed out that Asimov's robot stories center on autonomous, mobile thinking machines, but do not include sentient or even especially smart non-mobile computers. I'm sure (well, kind of sure) that Asimov did include smart machines in his later robot novels, but non-robotic machine sentience doesn't exist in his work at all. Yet, a central character in "I, Robot," which was, after all, only "suggested" by Asimov's work, is a very large, sentient, positronic mind called VIKI (oddly, also the name of a humanoid robot being developed in Denmark and there was an apparently-annoying TV show called "Small Wonder" about a robot "girl" named Vicki), which is or runs the central computer for US Robotics. From the present-day perspective, where supercomputers still fill rooms and the most powerful processors are nowhere near mobile, it seems strange that Asimov would reserve sentience to humaniform, mobile machines. On the other hand, for those who believe that intelligence is inherently embodied, that it cannot evolve without involvement in the sensory world, this seems more natural. Stories about the evolution of sentient AIs always (I think) involve at least metaphorical senses and manipulative abilities; e.g., SkyNet in "Termniator" has radar and other input senses, while it can manipulate the world quickly through the deployment of military hardware or more slowly by issuing orders to humans. An interesting (perhaps) point about Viki is that its voice and projected image are feminine, while the voices and features of the independent robots are neuter-to-masculine. Viki is, in a way, the "mother" of the robots, having "given birth" to them out of a partnership with their "father" Dr. Lanning, the roboticist whose suicide is at the center of the film's plot. We also learn, as the film progresses, that Viki is maternal. In fact, she subscribes to an interpretation of the first law of robotics ("A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") that Asimov eventually called the "zeroth law": "A robot may not injure humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." I won't talk about how this plays out in the film, but in Asimov's novels there was a continuing debate over what constituted "harm" to humanity, whether any robot or set of robots could reasonably identify harm to humanity, and how much they were willing, able, or entitled to break the other three laws in doing so. (See Rodger Clarke's discussion, which is good. Also, the Isaac Asimov Page of Android World includes discussions disputing the value of the three laws.)

That's all for now ...

P. S. Someone named Kevin contacted me about his robot-related site, "Redcone Robot News: Links, articles, updates, opinions, trends and predictions". The emphasis appears to be on current applications of and developments in robotic technology. These include but are not limited to humaniform robotics.
P.P.S. Here's another review of "I, Robot." This one compares VIKI to HAL.