Mon, 8/11
Location:
SH 1430
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Week 2: The Other
Isaac Asimov's "The Evitable Conflict" from I, Robot, 1950
The story is a conversation between Stephen Byerley and Susan Calvin in 2052.
The Three Laws of Robotics:
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.
Brief Background in Cybernetics:
The word was re-invented by Norbert Wiener in a 1948 book by the same name. The word is from Greek kubernetes, meaning pilot or rudder.
Cybernetics is a multidiscplinary science that attempts to govern systems composed of humans, machines (and animals.) Initially developed during MIT's WWII-era weapons research, cybernetics incorporates multiple technologies, including communication, engineering, physics, psychology, mathematics. We also discussed a general description of feedback loops, a concept crucial within cybernetics and at play in many works on our syllabus.
For more on cybernetics, try UCSB's Voice of the Shuttle page of links on AI, robotics and nanotech, or the American Society of Cybernetics.
Discussion Questions on "The Evitable Conflict" and Robot Themes:
* Why is science fiction so fixated on whether robots/intelligent machines will break from 1st law-type programming and harm us?
* How do these fears show up in our texts?
* What are some connections between these fears and Asimov's portrayal of women and predominantly non-white geographical regions?
* How do these ideas affect our definition of the human?
Aliens as Other: "When I was Miss Dow" and "The Women Men Don't See"
James Tiptree Jr., (1915-1987), pseudonym of Alice Sheldon.
She worked in Air Intelligence in the US Army during WWII, joined the CIA at its inception in 1952 and received a PhD in experimental psychology in 1967. Her 1975 collection of short stories was introduced by Robert Silverberg as demonstrating Tiptree's distinctly male writing.
Postwar business boom and Information Technology: (for "Tandy's Story" and general post-WWII historical/economic context)
1. Returning GIs in need of jobs (sideline, putting women back in the home)
2. New information sciences allow for businesses to be more beaurocratic, hence jobs beyond factory production/maintenance etc.
These factors led to multiple conditions in the 1950's, including the following, most pertinent to our class:
3. The rise of the white-collar worker. Middle management jobs, handling the beaurocracy involved in expanding companies, rose drastically.
* In 1955, white-collar workers outnumber blue-collar for the first time.
* The nature of the middle class changes. From late 19thC to WWII, the middle class primarily owned and operated small businesses. After WWII, the middle class are managers of larger businesses.
4. The dependent/coincident development of information technology to accommodate the new burst of middle management beaurocracy.
* This enables/spurs more information technology (flash forward to IBM's (International Business Machine's) first computer in 1983.)
* Information technology enables business growth by handling new loads of information more efficiently than people can-- managers manage information technology as well as people.
* As factory production gives way to "knowledge work," many factories actually move out of the US to developing nations (1970's).
"Tauf Aleph"
The Golem, from the Hebrew for "stupid person" or (by 16th century) "shapeless mass," is a medeival Jewish legend primarily associated with the persecution of Polish Jews.
Select Space Race Dates and Kubrick Dates
* 1957: Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, orbited earth. Later, Laike went up in Sputnik 2.
* 1958: The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, orbited earth.
* 1961: The first manned orbit of earth in Vostok.
* 1964: Stanley Kurbick released Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb.
*1968: Stanley Kubrick released 2001, a Space Odessey.
* 1969: The U.S. made it to the moon in Apollo 11.
Discussion Topics for 2001 and Other Robot and Aliens stories:
* The primary paradox in science fiction about robots and intelligent machines: we need them to be like humans so we can function with them better, but that programmed human-ness has dire consequences. What are some of these consequences? How does SF deal with this paradox?
* What are the implications/significance/connections among 2001's stiff dialogue/robotic humans, deeply human HAL, and extensive corporate logos?
* What are some religious aspects of the film, and what is their significance? Think specifically about the monolith, the aliens, and HAL.
* What does the film have to say about the relationship between technology and the body? |
