Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Jumping the shark?
raoullefere:
Have I managed to derail this thread?
(I hope so. Making the "Jump the Shark" thread jump the shark would be a real lion in my cap.)
tomart:
Congrats, raoullefere!
"If anyone can do it, rauollefere can...." :laugh:
Olymander:
--- Quote from: zadojla on 08 Nov 2010, 11:13 ---
--- Quote from: Loki on 08 Nov 2010, 10:40 ---
--- Quote from: Carl-E on 08 Nov 2010, 08:50 --- The first imperative (serving the humans) drove it toward the danger, and the second (self-preservation) drove it back.
--- End quote ---
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the second directive alyways overridden by the first one?
--- End quote ---
I believe you are correct, except it occurs to me that the the first law was not to harm a human or through inaction allow a human to come to harm, so we are really talking about the second and third laws. It's been over 40 years since I read I, Robot, so the details are hazy. I think there was some set-up in the story that made such an outcome "plausible".
And, as an old geek, I would like to note that Isaac Asimov was the commencement speaker when I graduated from college. I can't remember a word he said now, but it was terrific at the time.
--- End quote ---
It was the short story Runaround. I remember the story as well, and the associated link I gave gives a pretty good summary of the story. As for Asimov being your commencement speaker... lucky!
Carl-E:
Thank you! It had been over 30 years since I read it, and damned if I could find a copy or remember the title.
Skewbrow:
--- Quote from: Olymander on 09 Nov 2010, 01:23 ---It was the short story Runaround. I remember the story as well, and the associated link I gave gives a pretty good summary of the story. As for Asimov being your commencement speaker... lucky!
--- End quote ---
I remember that story, too. The good Dr Asimov wrote several such stories, where the conflicts resulting from Laws 1,2,3 played a key role. My favorite ones are (sorry can't remember the title) the one where the good guys identified a robot gone bad (among scores of look-alikes) by using the fact that the culprit was the only suspect, who would know that certain kind of radiation was harmless to humans. Therefore it felt compelled to act in a given setting. Its robot peers had learned that it is pointless to rush thru some radiation to the aid of humans, because their expensive brain would liquify before they could come to the aid. Another favorite of mine titled LIAR was about a robot that accidentally gained mind-reading powers. Therefore it felt compelled to deceive people about their romantic feelings being reciprocated.
Later the zeroth Law trumping the first law as developed by R. Giskard and R. Daneel Olivaw added another layer to the conflicts.
Commencement speaker? I envy you, Carl-E. At my commencement Bill Cosby was the speaker. Notre Dame granted him an honorary degree that year. All of us getting our PhDs got to shake hands with him, but Asimov... I would have been fanboying so hard...
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