Saturday, November 29, 2008

bicentennial man

In class this week we read a story titled Bicentennial Man, I thought the story was very interesting because the robot in the story was very creative. The robot in that story was different from other robots because he was a free robot. I thought that was interesting because I thought if you were free you didnt have to obey orders coming from someone that didnt have authority. The robot obeyed the two young men who told him to take his cloths off. I didnt understand how could they consider a robot free even though he obeyed orders from teenagers.

9 comments:

Sara Fugal said...

I enjoyed reading this story as well because it is so much different than so many of the other robot stories we've read so far. Andrew is a creative robot making him unique than others. I agree with scotty in the part where Andrew obeyed the two men and took his clothes off and they were then going to take Andrew for themselves. If Andrew has his own freedom, then why doesn't he just leave and ignore them. Granted he still has the 3 big rules engrained in him, he has his free choice. This story raises a lot of questions like this.

Todd C. said...

The story did make you wonder how could a robot have so much creativity. He clearly was unique in his ability to draw and think. He had more thought process than any other type of robot that I have read about.

Adam Saunders said...

I really enjoy the story about the Andrew the robot in Bicentennial Man. Andrew would be a really cool device to have to give someone that needed companionship much more involved then that of a pet. Andrew really surprises me with is creative nature and ability to truly reason and ask for his own freedom. I don't think that he should be given human rights because he isn't human. I do think that he should be granted rights of existence, however. I think that when robots like this do become reality, then we are going to have to write similar rights that greatly parallels that of human rights.

John Wise said...

I really enjoyed this story about Andrew because it gave us a look in to how a robot, who had much more thinking capabillities than any of the other robots, would live through life. Andrew's creativity is what makes him such a unique robot. I don't see Andrew's choice to obey the two men as an example that Andrew isn't free. I see it as an example of a robot adapting in a human culture. How is Andrew to know what to do in the decisions he makes...if he is really human he could make mistakes.

Caroline Wadsworth said...

I think that Bicentennial Man was by far my favorite story/homework assignment we had to read this semester. I thought that it was a very moving story. I think it would be hard to write a story that makes human feel compassionate about a robot and this story did that! We use machines like they are nothing and purely use them for their use but it was interesting to read a story that made you think outside of that box. This story made you think about how the robot feels!

Fortner87 said...

The Bicentennial Man was a very sad story. it dely with a robot that thought he was human and acted like it. he was very smart and seemed like a very good robot who knew more than we thought he did. he answered all these questions to life and began questioning his own life at times. i thought the story was good but in order to really appreciate it i would definitely buy the movie. it basiclly is the same thing but there is more added to the film in order to displaty Andrew.

Adam Saunders said...

In Bicentennial Man, the robot Andrew really impressed me because of authority and greater freedom he had over any other robot. Andrew seemed to act very similar to the way a child would act by obeying his superiors, human, and he had authority over some robots. Its Andrew's creative nature that holds many to believe he should have free will. I think what surprised me was that Andrew wasn't program to understand free will, but over time he was able to grasp that concept well enough to ask for it.

Nick Dew said...

I agree with what john said about Andrew assimilating into human culture. Human relationships are almost always dictated by a sense of those who are in contol and those who are not. Andrew maybe free in the since that he can create and design but ultimately he his not free in the true since of the word. Most humans would not obey the commands of someone who is not in authority of them. They would say no which Andrew does not. I think the three rules of robotics by their very nature take away freedom. Even though they are necassary to prevent harm.

Matthew Ackels said...

Unlike some of the stories that Asimov created this is very different in the idea that there could be a robot that has that ability to create unique works and even though Andrew is still bound by the constraints of the three laws he eventually works toward the idea that the only way to become truly human is to actually die. He believes that this is the most identifying factor about the human existence