5 ms·

John McCarthy: The Robot and the Baby

234 points by bootload 15y ago

marcusestes 15y ago
This is the first time I've come across the use of code as a meaningful narrative element in a work of fiction. It's not exactly Nabokov, but this is a pretty wonderful story. RIP, John.
- libraryatnight 15y ago
  Yes, when I came to the "R781 thought about the situation. Here are some of its thoughts, as printed later from its internal diary file," bit of the story at first I thought 'oh, clever.' By the end I was really moved.
6ren 15y ago
I loved this story (very wry), but not enough to overcome my innate pedantry... > As part of a 20 minute show, R781 clothes itself as it was at the time of its adventure with the baby and answers the visitors' questions If not saving a life, would not any command to imitate a human be insufficient to overcome the prohibition against this? To do so just for the sake of a show is a weaker reason than those given in the text.
- Jtsummers 15y ago
  > Mothers sometimes like to have their pictures taken standing next to R781 with R781 holding their baby. After many requests, R781 was told to patch its program to allow this. This suggests, to me at least, that there may have been other patches over the years. Certainly, nothing in the story precludes this.
DarkStarX1 15y ago
This is a great story written by one of computer science's greater minds. R.I.P. John McCarthy.
splicer 15y ago
That was a very enjoyable read. Thank you!
commieneko 15y ago
If you liked this story you may like _The Time of Eve_, which is a short animated Japanese science fiction series. It explores many of the same themes. I hadn't read this story before, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out the authors of the series had read it. Viewable on CrunchyRoll, legally, for free: http://www.crunchyroll.com/time-of-eve/episode-1-akiko-452708 http://www.crunchyroll.com/time-of-eve/episode-1-akiko-45270... There are six episodes of about 15 minutes each.
rem7 15y ago
They still have Bank Of America then... Don't show this to the people from Occupy Wall Street, they'll be disappointed.
adam-a 15y ago
Great story, very funny I thought. Feels like it could be a precursor to the short story Nanny by Philip K Dick (http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=722 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=722).
jeremyarussell 15y ago
I was sad to hear(see technically) that John McCarthy died, it was people like him that really got me into computers. The idea that we can use clever programming and modern hardware to make up for what we lack, math for instance is done nearly instantly with zero's and one's. It was people like him that helped start that ball rolling. A great read that should be shared with everyone. RIP John.

234 points by bootload 15y ago

This is the first time I've come across the use of code as a meaningful narrative element in a work of fiction. It's not exactly Nabokov, but this is a pretty wonderful story. RIP, John.

libraryatnight 15y ago
Yes, when I came to the "R781 thought about the situation. Here are some of its thoughts, as printed later from its internal diary file," bit of the story at first I thought 'oh, clever.' By the end I was really moved.

6ren 15y ago

I loved this story (very wry), but not enough to overcome my innate pedantry... > As part of a 20 minute show, R781 clothes itself as it was at the time of its adventure with the baby and answers the visitors' questions If not saving a life, would not any command to imitate a human be insufficient to overcome the prohibition against this? To do so just for the sake of a show is a weaker reason than those given in the text.

Jtsummers 15y ago
> Mothers sometimes like to have their pictures taken standing next to R781 with R781 holding their baby. After many requests, R781 was told to patch its program to allow this. This suggests, to me at least, that there may have been other patches over the years. Certainly, nothing in the story precludes this.

DarkStarX1 15y ago

This is a great story written by one of computer science's greater minds. R.I.P. John McCarthy.

splicer 15y ago

That was a very enjoyable read. Thank you!

commieneko 15y ago

If you liked this story you may like _The Time of Eve_, which is a short animated Japanese science fiction series. It explores many of the same themes. I hadn't read this story before, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out the authors of the series had read it. Viewable on CrunchyRoll, legally, for free: http://www.crunchyroll.com/time-of-eve/episode-1-akiko-452708 http://www.crunchyroll.com/time-of-eve/episode-1-akiko-45270... There are six episodes of about 15 minutes each.

rem7 15y ago

They still have Bank Of America then... Don't show this to the people from Occupy Wall Street, they'll be disappointed.

adam-a 15y ago

Great story, very funny I thought. Feels like it could be a precursor to the short story Nanny by Philip K Dick (http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=722 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=722).

jeremyarussell 15y ago

I was sad to hear(see technically) that John McCarthy died, it was people like him that really got me into computers. The idea that we can use clever programming and modern hardware to make up for what we lack, math for instance is done nearly instantly with zero's and one's. It was people like him that helped start that ball rolling. A great read that should be shared with everyone. RIP John.