(c. 1920–1992) Isaac Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University and a well-known science fiction novelist.
Asimov was a prolific writer in a variety of genres, and his
corpus of science fiction has had a major impact on not just the genre, but
also on ethical concerns surrounding science and technology.
Asimov was born in the Russian Federation.
He celebrated his birthday on January 2, 1920, despite not
knowing his official birth date.
In 1923, his family moved to New York City.
At the age of sixteen, Asimov applied to Columbia College,
the undergraduate school of Columbia University, but was refused admission
owing to anti-Semitic restrictions on the number of Jewish students.
He finally enrolled in Seth Low Junior College, a connected
undergraduate institution.
Asimov switched to Columbia College when Seth Low closed its
doors, but obtained a Bachelor of Science rather than a Bachelor of Arts, which
he regarded as "a gesture of second-class citizenship" (Asimov 1994,
n.p.).
Asimov grew interested in science fiction about this time
and started writing letters to science fiction periodicals, ultimately attempting
to write his own short tales.
His debut short story, "Marooned off Vesta," was
published in Amazing Stories in 1938.
His early works placed him in the company of science fiction
pioneers like Robert Heinlein.
After graduation, Asimov attempted, but failed, to enroll in
medical school.
Instead, at the age of nineteen, he enrolled in graduate
school for chemistry.
World War II halted Asimov's graduate studies, and at
Heinlein's recommendation, he completed his military duty by working at the
Naval Air Experimental Station in Philadelphia.
He created short tales while stationed there, which
constituted the foundation for Foundation (1951), one of his most well-known
works and the first of a multi-volume series that he would eventually tie to
numerous of his other pieces.
He earned his doctorate from Columbia University in 1948.
The pioneering Robots series by Isaac Asimov (1950s–1990s)
has served as a foundation for ethical norms to alleviate human worries about
technology gone awry.
The Three Laws of Robotics, for example, are often mentioned
as guiding principles for artificial intelligence and robotics.
The Three Laws were initially mentioned in the short tale
"Run about" (1942), which was eventually collected in I, Robot
(1950):
1. A robot may not damage a human being or enable a human
being to come to danger as a result of its inactivity.
2. Except when such commands contradict with the First Law,
a robot shall follow orders provided to it by humans.
3. A robot must defend its own existence as long as this
does not violate the First or Second Laws.
A "zeroth rule" is devised in Robots and Empire
(1985) in order for robots to prevent a scheme to destroy Earth: "A robot
may not damage mankind, or enable humanity to come to danger via inactivity."
The original Three Laws are superseded by this statute.
Characters in Asimov's Robot series of books and short
stories are often tasked with solving a mystery in which a robot seems to have
broken one of the Three Laws.
In "Runaround," for example, two field experts
with U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. discover they're in danger of being
stuck on Mercury since their robot "Speedy" hasn't returned with
selenium required to power a protective shield in an abandoned base to screen
them from the sun.
Speedy has malfunctioned because he is stuck in a conflict
between the Second and Third Laws: when the robot approaches the selenium, it
is obliged to recede in order to defend itself from a corrosive quantity of
carbon monoxide near the selenium.
The humans must discover out how to apply the Three Laws to
free Speedy from a conflict-induced feedback cycle.
More intricate arguments concerning the application of the
Three Laws appear in later tales and books.
The Machines manage the world's economy in "The
Evitable Conflict" (1950), and "robopsychologist" Susan Calvin
notices that they have changed the First Law into a predecessor of Asimov's
zeroth law: "the Machines work not for any one human being, but for all
humanity" (Asimov 2004b, 222).
Calvin is concerned that the Machines are guiding mankind
toward "the ultimate good of humanity" (Asimov 2004b, 222), even if
humanity is unaware of what it is.
Furthermore, Asimov's Basis trilogy (1940s–1990s) coined the
word "psychohistory," which may be interpreted as foreshadowing the
algorithms that provide the foundation for artificial intelligence today.
In Foundation, the main character Hari Seldon creates
psychohistory as a method of making broad predictions about the future behavior
of extremely large groups of people, such as the breakdown of civilization
(here, the Galactic Empire) and the ensuing Dark Ages.
Seldon, on the other hand, claims that using psychohistory
may shorten the era of anarchy: Psychohistory, which has the ability to foretell
the fall, may make pronouncements about the coming dark times.
The Empire has been in existence for almost a thousand
years.
The next dark ages will last thirty thousand years, not
twelve.
A Second Empire will develop, but there will be a thousand
generations of suffering humanity between it and our civilization...
If my party is permitted to operate immediately, it is
conceivable to cut the period of anarchy to a single millennium.
30–31 (Asimov, 2004a) Psychohistory produces "a
mathematical prediction" (Asimov, 2004a, 30), similar to how artificial
intelligence would make a forecast.
Seldon established the Basis in the Foundation trilogy, a
hidden collection of people enacting humanity's collective knowledge and so
serving as the physical foundation for a hypothetical second Galactic Empire.
The Foundation is threatened by the Mule in later parts of
the Foundation series, a mutant and consequently an aberration that was not
predicted by psychohistory's predictive research.
Although Seldon's thousand-year plan depends on macro
conceptions—"the future isn't nebulous," the friction between
large-scale theories and individual actions is a crucial factor driving
Foundation.
Seldon has computed and plotted it" (Asimov 2004a,
100)—individual acts may save or destroy the scheme.
Asimov's works were frequently foreshadowing, prompting some
to label his work as "future history" or "speculative
fiction." Asimov's ethical challenges are often cited in legal, political,
and policy arguments years after they were published.
For example, in 2007, the South Korean Ministry of Commerce,
Industry, and Energy established a Robot Ethics Charter based on the Three
Laws, predicting that by 2020, every Korean household will have a robot.
The British House of Lords' Artificial Intelligence
Committee adopted a set of guidelines in 2017 that are similar to the Three
Laws.
The Three Laws' utility has been questioned by others.
First, some opponents point out that robots are often
employed for military purposes, and that the Three Laws would restrict this
usage, which Asimov would have supported given his anti-war short tales like
"The Gentle Vultures" (1957).
Second, some argue that today's robots and AI applications
vary significantly from those shown in the Robot series.
Asimov's imaginary robots are still powered by a
"positronic brain," which is still science fiction and beyond current
computer capacity.
Third, the Three Laws are clearly fiction, and Asimov's
Robot series is founded on misinterpretations in order to advance ethical
concerns and for dramatic impact.
Critics claim that the Three Laws cannot serve as a true moral
framework for controlling AI or robotics since they may be misunderstood just
like any other legislation.
Finally, some argue that these ethical principles should be
applied to all people.
Asimov died in 1992 from symptoms related to AIDS, which he
caught after receiving a tainted blood transfusion during a heart bypass
operation in 1983.
~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan
You may also want to read more about Artificial Intelligence here.
See also: Beneficial AI, Asilomar Meeting on; Pathetic Fallacy; Robot Ethics.
Further Reading
Asimov, Isaac. 1994. I, Asimov: A Memoir. New York: Doubleday.
Asimov, Isaac. 2002. It’s Been a Good Life. Amherst: Prometheus Books.
Asimov, Isaac. 2004a. The Foundation Novels. New York: Bantam Dell.
Asimov, Isaac. 2004b. I, Robot. New York: Bantam Dell.
