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Just a really fun and interesting sci-fi read.
I‘ve been wanting to get through this one for awhile now. It is horrible and amazing.
Such an interesting little read. Second time through, this time with the hardcopy.
There are so many different tools & techniques that the universe could use to create life.
I‘m only on page 40 of this book, and I‘m already hooked. Within this short amount of reading, Sagan has retold the story of ancient Alexandria, how a certain crab was artificially selected to have natural designs of samurai faces on their carapaces, and the beginnings of life on our world.
“Today we have discovered a powerful and elegant way to understand the universe, a method called science; it has revealed to us a universe so ancient and so vast that human affairs seem at first sight to be of little consequence.”
The “end of nationalism” as Dr. Calvin puts it. Imagine a world grouped by vast regions rather then small countries.
Dr. Calvin drives Herbie mad with this “insoluble dilemma” by using the first law of robotics in a paradoxical fashion.
Positron: a subatomic particle with the same mass as an electron and a numerically equal but positive charge.
Funny, this robot can‘t accept a human as his creator. “You‘re the first robot who‘s ever exhibited curiosity as to his own existence...”
Such a cool concept for the inner workings of machine‘s artificial thought process (based on the in-universe laws of robotics).
The sudden realization of the possibility to be generalized into a generic group would be very unnerving.
People care about their movies and TV shows more than their interpersonal relationships nowadays. This is most noticeable in the Generation Z cohort.
1-A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2-A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3-A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law