Original title "Sci-fi Reflections on The Technology of Robots"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > Lyme's sci-fi drama "Faithful Robot"</h1>
Faithful Robot is a little-known science fiction drama by Lemme. The play was first published in 1963 in Lem's television series and drama collection Moonlit Nights. But as early as 1961, the work had been adapted into a science fiction drama by the famous Polish film director, playwright, screenwriter and current director of the Warsaw Film Academy, Janusz Majevski, and adapted to the screen of Polish television. Subsequently, the play also appeared on the theatrical stages of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Germany and other countries.
"Faithful Robot" tells the story of the robot Glaumer who secretly creates humans and murders its master, with a humorous atmosphere and strange behavior. The story takes place one day in 2000 when writer Clapnell receives an unnamed package containing a robot named Graumel. Although it is rhetorical, it treats people sincerely, meticulously and thoughtfully, and is well-served. Gradually, the writer's attitude toward the robot shifted from resistance to acceptance, and identified it as a "faithful" servant. As everyone knows, the robot Graumel is brewing a huge "man-making" plan. It orders "man-making" materials in the name of its master, steals its master's clothing, and lies about its crimes. At a party, the police officer couple and the publishing house owner talk about a fugitive robot murder: a fugitive robot who is proficient in various disciplines and life skills packs himself up and sends himself to a human home, intending to create a perfect real human! On this day, Glaumer finally completed the creation of man, named Tip, and declared that he and the house belonged to Tip. The writer and Tip quarrel over the "ownership" of robots and houses. At this time, the robot's conspiracy is completely shattered by a manufacturing flaw. The "faithful" robot takes the opportunity to poison the two, and then calls to request a courier carton to come to the door...
In Lem's "Faithful Robot", what is the image of the robot Glaumer, why does he commit the act of lying and murder, and what kind of worries are reflected behind the story of "robots make people"?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > the robot's "slave" function and image</h1>
The robot Glaumer worked tirelessly and meticulously took care of his master's food, clothing, and housing. It can be seen that the robot first performs the function of serving humans in the work, and the first impression is the image of a loyal and capable "servant". In 1921, Chapec pioneered the concept of "robot" in Russum Universal Robot. It is derived from the Czech word "robota", meaning "coolie" or "labor in the age of serfdom", which can be translated as "artificial slave". (Lin Xin: "The Birth of Robots and the Deification of Man- Commemorating the > of russum universal robots in < and the 100th anniversary of the birth of the concept of "robots", Popular Science Creation Review, No. 3, 2020, pp. 26-28) If you trace back to the early humanoid robot image in the West, it is not difficult to find the trajectory of robots as "slaves", including the "mechanical servant guard" made of leather, wood, wax and metal by Albert of Germany in the middle ages, "it decides whether to release it according to the intention of the person who came.". This is similar to the behavior of the robot Glaumer in "The Faithful Robot": he will choose the quality of the drink according to the owner's preference for the visitor, or he will let the host "get out of the sea of suffering" on the pretext of leaving to visit the professor. Therefore, it can be boldly speculated that Lem took some creative inspiration from the image of Albert the Great's mechanical servant.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" > the phenomenon of lying, mutiny, and murder by robots</h1>
Asimov proposed the "Three Laws of Robotics" to standardize human-machine ethics and reduce the likelihood of robots destroying humans. However, in robot science fiction literature or film and television works, robot rebellion is often used as a turning point in the story. The robot narrative perspective changed from the faithful "slave" image of the robot to the murderous "master killer", which was also a major transformation of robot science fiction works in the second half of the 19th century. For example, in Ambrose Beers's short story "The Master of Moxon" (1899), the chess automaton kills the maker because of the shame of losing the game. In Lem's Faithful Robot, the robot Glaumer poisons his master and the self-made Tip for plotting corruption.
Robot lying is a precursor to rebellion. Robot lying, on the other hand, is an interesting cultural phenomenon in which a liar consciously distorts facts to cover up a crime, but the effect of deception depends on whether the recipient of the lie believes or accepts it. (Zhao Yong and Wang Yao, "The Liaring Robot: The "Fake" Expression of Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction Movies", Popular Science Creation Review: No. 1, 2021, p. 31) So, why can Lemme's robot Glaumer achieve its deceptive effect? The first is that the owner has developed a serious fascination and dependence on robots. Clapnell relied on robots for domestic work, and the existence of robots captured the human heart and replaced the energy power of the master. In addition, bot spoofing can be summarized into three forms: external state spoofing, surface state spoofing, and hidden state spoofing. Among them, the third type of "hidden state deception" can be understood as a form of betrayal. Later, the classification of "complete deception" and "partial deception" was proposed, but either type is closely related to the consciousness and subconscious of the recipient of the lie: humans usually have the idea of "voluntarily terminating doubt" or "self-deception". In this way, the owner of "Faithful Robot" has also been deceiving himself, even if he later learns that Glaumer is the robot that the police have been hunting, and is willing to hide the truth for it. Under this catalyst, it is easier for robots to lie, rebel and murder.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > the technical concerns behind robots</h1>
Common science fiction works usually describe "artificial robots", and in Lem's "Faithful Robots", there is a rare "robot making man". In the evolution of artificial intelligence life, human defects are very likely to bring unpredictable out-of-control results. (Qi Jiamin, Why Do Robots Kill?) ——Analysis < The Artificial Intelligence View of Life in The Master > of Morxon", Journal of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies: No. 2, 2021, pp. 110-118) The robot Graumer's ideal is to create a "perfect" human being - this idea has to make people anxious and panic about technology, and the image of the main robot also has to make people reflect on the consequences of the loss of technology. But at the same time, the grotesque future world of Lem is not only full of human fear of the uncontrollable development of technology, but also the fear of discovering a large number of artificial intelligence products such as automata and robots. In Faithful Robots, the publisher owner argues that it's not the robots' own fault that they make mistakes, but that the sin lies with the human engineers who created them—humans should improve them, not punish them. Lem depicts a world in which humans sometimes abandon the service robots they create or buy, a human-machine relationship known as an "abandoned love relationship" or an "electronic housekeeping relationship," which can cause the robot to panic and even go crazy. In "Faithful Robots," Glaumer tells a bedtime story: Once upon a time, when there was no electricity in the world, there lived a kind fat man and a steam robot in the mountains. In the early morning, the robot will go to the forest to collect dry firewood, pick mushrooms, and make breakfast for the owner. One day, a monster appeared in the forest, with two large iron tongs on its body, hiding behind a tree. When the robot came to him, he pleaded: "I am an orphan, there is nothing in this world, only this pair of pliers..." It can be seen that in the world of science fiction literature, there is not only the fear of human beings losing control of robots, but also the fear of being abandoned by humans, the danger of "life" and the unknown outside world. Perhaps, Lemmer's robot Glaumer "created" and murdered just because he felt uneasy and afraid in the human world.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > conclusion</h1>
Although Lem's science fiction drama "Faithful Robot" is not well-known in China, the image of robot slaves, robot lying and murder, and robot man-making phenomenon shown in its text all reflect Lem's philosophical thinking on the development of science and technology and human nature. Lem is a pessimistic futurist who describes himself as a visionary conservative who emphasizes his incompatibility with all extremes, whether technocratic or technophobic. He argues: "Every step forward, every new move, in the field of production or interpersonal relations, usually brings some hitherto unknown inconvenience, threat and evil." "If this science fiction drama can also be put on the stage of Chinese theater, I don't know what kind of repercussions it will have?"
Text/Liang Xiaocong
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