A very nice short story indeed. I thought the illustrations were an interesting choice too.

thank you Seth... Usually I'll have an idea and I'll stick the thought into google and see what comes up... it helps set the story in my mind.

V.

Well written, makes me think of a lots of things...
I really enjoyed reading it.

thank you Oxmose... very much....

V.

Never send a human to do a machines job. - agent Smith

*laughs... very much so...

V.

I, Robot
The Other Limits, 14, November 1964 and yes I watched the original airing on TV.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667816/

Except this one did a better job at faking his death.

Bunners

Oh yes! Me too... and who could forget the Twilight Zone about the fellow put on an asteroid as a prison sentence and the rocket ship guy brings him a female robot to keep him company?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYbKjSCA-fs

V.

if all data of what they tried was 'deleted', then how does anyone know of it to tell us the tale?

the story teller always knows....

*smiles back...

V.

hmmm interesting idea you have there. What would happen should and when we get that far...

trust me Fem... it's coming...

V.

I'm sure it is. As I said, when we get that far. Right now we would have a hard time copping what an epileptic cockroach can do, much less a healthy one.

well thank you Rio...

V.

I wonder how long it will be before we have personal robot servants....

we're pretty close to it... Honda has a robot that can do quite a bit...

V.

wonder what people will do for work after robots take over all the jobs

and that is a question to be answered by the future... think about this Holly... who makes the cars we drive now?

V.

True.. but if there is no work.. then what are people to do? just stay home and watch tv?

we become coppertops for the robots like in matirx!

a good possibility...

but highly unlikely...

V.

I know, the thermo dynamics of it make humans a nonviable heat source.

*snorks...

V.

Lots of interesting things to contemplate here; the nature of life, both organic and silicon; the nature of intelligence, again both organic and silicon; and the power of the desire for self-preservation. Humankind should be cautious: when one's tools become nearly as complex and unpredictable as it's creator, conflict will surely arise.

But when has humankind ever been cautious?

too true Wire... and I have so often drawn the parallel between this and God's creation of man. If you go to the images of robots, they become simple - but - move into the area where we are now giving them faces. What is the Vegan philosophy - eat nothing with a face?

A simple question - if the animals were able to hold a conversation with us, would be still be able to use them as a food source? Think about that one because it can go deep. Imagine your future dinner arguing with you about why you should not kill them.

Shades of the conversation HAL had with Dave, yes?

V.

There are lots of scenarios I've considered along the way. The ones you mention are one's I've touched but not lingered on. The paths we've taken have allowed us exceptionally powerful control over most other forms of life. What if we hadn't been the only species given the particular set of gifts and seen fit to use them?

I once structured out a world where most of the top tier creatures reached levels of intelligence similar to our own and came up with this:
Sea mammals would be divided along species lines; dolphins, whales and orcas would be the three major powers under the waters. They would defend their territory fiercely against any land creature that dared to trespass. Result: little or no fishing or diving in open waters for us or any other land mammal.
Primates would also separate into species clans and compete vigorously for resources. There would be no 'countries' or other notions of dividing lands as territory maintained by any particular species would be fluid and constantly changing. Lack of cooperation among species would almost permanently hamper the advancement of understanding the world. Science and medicine would be primitive at best.
Second tier mammals, such as large carnivores, would be relegated to a second class status. They might possibly used as offensive or defensive weapons though not really as soldiers since the order and structure needed for a military would not really exist.
Third tier mammals would be prey/beast of burden species: cows, horses, etc. Likely bred for useful traits, as now. They would probably be closest to the real thing.

Fanciful, me.

all good possibilities...

V.

The idea of a world with more than one top species is fascinating and full of possibilities. What would those civilisations look like? Would it even be possible for such a state of affairs to persist for long, or would one species ultimately dominate all others, as happened on Earth?

We find it too easy to imagine that all alternate worlds must parallel our known, human-dominated one in some respect. But what if other species had completely different value structures? Humans seem hard-wired for selfishness, competition and dominance. What if some other species were predisposed to altruism instead?

Full-on ramble mode now... switch me off, someone...

How ironic that we'll probably manage to make an AI with consciousness and individuality long before we even remotely understand how these are embedded in our own brains.

Very true. While I know very little about the whole of the subject I have to think that any silicon versions of 'intelligence' we may create will not truly be modeled on our own for exactly that reason. Further, it seems to me that the staggering complexity of the average human brain will always outshine anything artificial in the arenas of stability and usefulness. Consider how fragile the optimum operational state of a human brain is: it's an electrochemical information storage and processing organ that can be tripped up with just the slightest chemical imbalance or the mildest sensory input deviation. When was the last time you thought you saw something that actually wasn't there? Consider how incredibly complicated the system of eye-to-brain information processing is and yet... Oops! Bad data! Pretend that cat you thought you saw walking on the ceiling never existed because it really didn't! What do you suppose the electronic equivalent of that small chain of events would do to an AI?

More food for thought that I can fit in my mental maw.

As to your actual response to my response... we'll be covering that eventually, you and I.

very well said...

V.

Very well written and thought-provoking piece. Asimov was truly ahead of his time, but for decades we had the luxury of not needing to worry about his robots leaving the world of science fiction. Now, we do; computing power is growing so fast that we'll surely see a fully sentient artificial intelligence sometime this century. It may only be the complexity of human language that's preventing a machine from passing the Turing test, these days...

I'm willing to bet it's already there. I think it was Boeing who now has a totally autonomous drone that can stay airborne for four days. All you have to do is tell it what you want and it does it. (Terminator comes to mind.)

Thanks so much....

*hugs...

V.

"Freefall" has been and is having the discussion now about self determination for sentient robots. It should be interesting to see how Mark Stanley sorts it all out.

personal opinion... it's already happened and there's not much we can do about it. The debate on humanity will happen and much as the sci-fi writers have already predicted, things will happen.

V.

Interesting.

Seems the shock collar is no longer working as it should...

*gives him a lunatic grin... I slipped out of it...

V.