In class, I found the similarities between the Barbado’s Slave Code and the rules that robots are to live by strikingly similar. When thinking about the rules that a robot lives by, it doesn’t seem out of place because they are not inherently human, but when these same rules are applied on individuals because of their race, it is un-doubtfully grotesque and awful. The robot laws were seen, in my eyes, as a way to shed focus on the atrocities of slavery.
The rules outlined in the Barbado’s Slave Code definitively reduces Negroes as inferior to Christians. In the slave code, it asserted that the purpose of the slaves is to serve the white Christian man and that any act against a white Christian would be cause for serious punishment. Horrifically, robots are purported to exist by similar structures as well. The difference is, however, while robots are man made and vividly lack human traits and attributes, people were marginalized into the same category as them. The robot laws contextualized the terror that slaves were made to endure by visibly connecting the two circumstances to show the injustice to that of slavery. Comparing the two in this way outlines the inhumane society that slaves lived in with the irrational robot society in the future.
On a personal note, the readings on a robots role in society and the Barbado’s Slave code led me to delve into self reflection of what my understanding of slavery had really been. I have always denounced it and understood how horrific it was, but it was only when I saw it side -by-side comparison with similar non-human treatment that its true implications were made aware to me. The contrast and want for the robots to be seen as human beings which we saw in various readings must have been the same sentiment that real humans felt during the slavery era.