Name: I Robot
Item: I, Robot
Author: @jeff001

Don't misinterpret the instructions.

An very interesting crime thriller with a good amount of action thrown in. If you are interested in the plot than a very interesting question is considered regarding robotics, specifically the three laws of robotics or Asimov's Laws.

First Law - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

The films asks where something guide by these laws could end up. Granted it doesn't spend a lot of time delving into the details but if you are interested it is something to consider. The film draws the conclusion that the best way the artificial intelligence can fulfil all the goals of the three laws is to take full control of society and limit human freedoms.

Humans aren't good at looking after themselves, and the first law states "or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm". An interesting concept.

If of course you only came for the action, there is enough of that to keep you interested, the visual effects have been done very well. Basically an enjoyable film, that could have explored the sci-fi question in a bit more detail.

In the not too distant future, we have robot in most houses to do the "boring" jobs, cook clean, fetch the groceries, and any other task given to it. Overseeing the robots is a central Artificial Intelligence, it ensures updates are applied and monitors the robots. The AI has also been control over some of the city's infrastructure and as expected it has achieved efficiency gains.

Not everyone trusts the robots, we have Will Smith / Del Spooner on the police force that doesn't want anything to do with them. Yet somehow when his friend head of robotics research end up dead he is given the case. His captain, the police force and the robotics company are all convinced that there is nothing to investigate.

But, surprise not everything is as it seems, there is more to his friends death. His suspicions are fully triggered when a robot flees the crime scene, then other robots seemingly malfunction around him when he is alone and there aren't any witnesses.

But is this one robot to blame for his friends death or is there something bigger going on?

It was a great movie in its day, it's like the concept of an AI rebellion/takeover has been part of the collective human conscience since the Terminator movies primed us all to accept it. We know the machines are going to fuck us up, it's just a matter of when.

Ex Machina was another good movie with AI becoming self aware and malevolent towards humans.

It seems inevitable that something like that will happen for real, if you build a machine that is thousands (or millions) of times more intelligent than any human has been or ever will be it will be in-humane by definition, to expect it to be wise or compassionate on a human level seems totally unreasonable to me.

Why would AI give any more thought to us than we do to ants or cockroaches that have the potential to get in and fuck up its circuitry. You just spray the fucking things and move on.

Don't misinterpret the instructions.

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