This week we read two of Asimov ‘s short stories, and a piece on machine bias. There are similarities between Andrew, the robot from The Bicentennial Man and Multivac, the giant computer from All the Troubles of the World and The Last Question.
In All the Troubles of the World, Multivac is a huge computer used to predict the future, greatly reduce crime, and protects individuals from themselves and each other. Multivac can also answer questions that people ask and print out a response. In this story though, Multivac seemed to have a mind of it’s own, it was able to decide its own course of actions. Multivac ordered a boy to attempt to assassinate Multivac itself. This request showed that it was very possible, with more practice, Multivac would be able to learn deceit. Multivac was acting like a living being and in the end, when asked what it wanted, Multivac said “I want to die”.
This is very similar to Andrew. For Andrew, he started out as a robot, taking care of the Martin family. He starts showing signs of having a mind, feelings, and other human characteristics, like Multivac. Still, Andrew had to obey the three rules of Robotics. This is similar to how Multivac couldn’t stop being a machine. Multivac couldn’t prevent reporting that itself was in increasing danger, and Multivac wasn’t able to hide the instructions it gave to the boy when the Corrections officers requested the record. Both Andrew and Multivac lived lives as robots with a mind that was able to think for itself. In the end, both Andrew and Multivac wanted to die.
A side note is that we also discussed the way Asimov portrays his female characters. Most of the characters in his short stories were men and the women characters were often described as shrill and less than the men.