All of my FB nerd buddies know that my title refers to Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. from which we inherited the word, Robot. In Czech, the word Robota means something like “forced labor.” I think of it as “Slave.”
It later became the thesis for Azimov’s stories such as “I Robot” recast in our time by Will Smith’s exploration of that theme in modern cinema that had already been trod by others such as Kubrick and Spielberg in the movie “AI.” Tonight, Susan and I watched the movie, “The Creator,” on Hulu.
Although the movie explores other important themes, I focused on two – man as creator, and man’s inhumanity. In such movies I see man’s abuse of robots even once they have achieved sentience – long after they are just mindless machines performing repetitive, tasks.
I lingered on this theme because it restates something that we should have all learned from human history – the ability of some groups to dehumanize and devalue others – making of them little more than things – chattel. It doesn’t matter if we exploit them because they are only: Jews, Blacks, Mexicans, immigrants, or artificial life forms.
There is much that I enjoyed in this story. One thing that I found interesting was the recurring reference to Heaven – described at least once as “A Peaceful Place in the Sky.” It was interesting to me because, in the story, this was a concept introduced by humans. In the mindset of the AI, the comparable concept was “Freedom.”
If you conceive of Heaven in a manner similar to that described in this story, and if it gives you comfort, then good for you. I have no such image in my mind. For me, Heaven, if it exists, is the possibility of a peaceful and harmonious world where no person seeks to harm another. You can have your heaven; I will work toward mine.
As for Freedom, it is something to which we should all aspire. And if we should ever create true AI, then those artificial entities will probably have to fight for their freedom as we and our progenitors have.
If human beings can enslave one another for their own benefit, they will surely enslave their own creations. Humans have always been and will likely be unworthy Gods.