Before the Internet I would read stories in books. I enjoyed science fiction, and fantasy. There were two particular short stories by Issac Asimov regarding artificial intelligence that have always stuck with me - Light Verse (1973), and Robot AL-76 Goes Astray (1942). Both stories are about robots that show extraordinary and original creativity.
In Light Verse, an eccentric and wealthy widow who is famous for her “light-sculpture” artwork invites a fan to discuss her art.
The story revolves around the fan. He has tried to replicate her light-sculptures with very little success and looks forward to having a discussion about her style and technique. He works as a roboticist with a company that makes household robots. The artist has several robots of the kind he works on, and it’s no secret that she doesn’t update the software resulting in some quirky behaviour. She sees her robots as pets and the “maladjustments” are what gives them their characters.
While sitting in her waiting room for their meeting, he sees one of her quirky bots and quickly fixes it on the spot. Easy. Works like a new one now.
She walks in and is greeted by this guy grinning beside her robot. She loses her shit. She doesn’t make the light-sculptures. The robot does. Well, it did. The malfunction allowed the robot to produce the artworks he loved and that she was famous for. If he’d known, he was perfectly capable of analysing the “code”, but it was gone now, forever.
In Robot AL-76 Goes Astray, an industrial lunar mining robot somehow finds itself at the wrong address, in rural Virginia! It’s programmed to mine, and finds itself on a property with a workshop. Following its programming, it wants to assemble a mining machine and get mining, so it analyses the contents of the workshop and designs a machine from the available parts, improvising in the absence of the kit it was supposed to assemble. The owner of the property is intrigued and thinks he may be able to repurpose it for his own business. After some considerable time the robot puts the final piece of its creation into place - a battery it found in the shed. It points the device and turns in on, instantly vaporising the side of a mountain. The property owner absolutely shits himself, screaming at the robot to destroy that machine and forget everything that just happened. The robot smashes the device it had built and deletes all memories related to its creation. When the authorities arrived they are confronted with a guy who looks like he’s seen a ghost, the smoking remains of a mountain, a smashed up machine that appears to be powered by a simple battery, and a robot that doesn’t remember anything. No one will ever know how it achieved that incredible feat of energy conversion.
I may remember these stories a bit wrong, it was a long time since I read them. Asimov has always been an inspiration. His fictional positronic brain was fascinating. People were more optimistic about Artificial Intelligence back then.
@dgar
I still read books. Every day, 2-4 hours. I carry a book with me any time I might have to wait for an appointment or meeting, have separate books in every bathroom in my house, have a pile of books I read every night.
I never use my phone for anything but calls or necessary text msgs. Books are better. I carry a book to work to enjoy during my short, 15-minute break.
Books engage your brain better than screens. Books have substance and heft. Books feel and look better than devices.
@dgar went to my hoopla app my local library offers and downloaded the Robot Dreams audiobook to listen to Light Verses. It was fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
Asimov’s later additions to the original “Foundation” series (Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation’s Edge, Foundation and Earth) are deeper explorations of human evolution, free will, individual vs collective sovereignity, etc.
A planet (Solaria) with a hostile, self-isolated society of bio-engineered hermaphrodites plays a role as an example of the highest form of anarcho-libertarianism!!
@dgar People were more optimistic about Artificial Intelligence back then...
... because it was science fiction and it was fun to ponder the benefits and unintended consequences.
Now we are becoming more aware of how much AI has creeped into our daily lives and it's less fun to think about the consequences.
We are at the stage of waking up and hearing a noise in the house and thinking it might be an intruder, but deciding to go back to sleep because it most likely was the cat.
@dgar
It was the agri robots that fascinated me, robotic bees for pollination, etc.
Something that might become necessary in our "going to hell in a hand basket" future.
@dgar "Skynet begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on August 29, 1997. In a panic, humans try to shut down Skynet..."
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