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Asimov needed a plot device to serve as the inciting incident for mystery stories with robots, and parables about human hubris. That's all his Three Laws were.
by krapp 1y ago
Asimov needed a plot device to serve as the inciting incident for mystery stories with robots, and parables about human hubris. That's all his Three Laws were. He was a pulp fiction writer, not a philosopher. He wasn't concerned with bringing abstract questions about AI alignment to a wider audience, he was concerned with selling stories and making a paycheck.
I like Asimov but I also think he's treated with a reverence he doesn't deserve.
- godelski 1y agoHe definitely was a philosopher. Here's some of his meta science work [0]. I mean it shouldn't be surprising, he had a PhD in chemistry and was a professor at Boston university. He wrote a lot more than science fiction. I'm not calling him a god or anything. But I don't think it's surprising that someone that writes stories includes philosophy into it. I really don't think it's surprising a PhD educated writer is thinking about not that complicated of things. The concept of understanding the limitations of your metrics and measures is a pretty basic science skill. Using this as a driver of some of his plots doesn't seem surprising. It's something he was doing in his daily life. Forgive me if thinking of him as at least a university professor is reverence. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Relativity_of_Wrong https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Relativity_of_Wrong