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Can a Machine Be a Gentleman? Machine Ethics and Ethical Machines
- Author(s):
- Ádám Tamás Bogár (see profile)
- Date:
- 2013
- Subject(s):
- American literature, Twentieth century, American fiction, Applied ethics, Computers, History, Literature--Philosophy
- Item Type:
- Book chapter
- Tag(s):
- Kurt Vonnegut, Machine Ethics, Alan Turing, 20th-century American literature, 20th-century American novel, Computer history, Literature and philosophy
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/czhp-bf36
- Abstract:
- Drawing upon the science-fictional elements of Vonnegut’s work, Ádám T. Bogár asks whether a machine can be a gentleman as a way to approach the human-versus-machine dichotomy, which is explored in a number of Vonnegut’s writings. For instance, the eponymous “hero” of the 1950 short story “EPICAC,” one of Vonnegut’s first publications, is a fictional heavy-duty supercomputer whose “personality” calls the classical hierarchy of human over machine into question. While machines with superhuman physical capabilities are pervasive in science fiction stories, computers morally superseding human are less easy to find. In this essay, Bogár reviews the human/machine relationship apparent in the short story, in Player Piano (which includes a computer named EPICAC XIV), and in other works. Drawing upon the ideas of British mathematician-cryptographer Alan Turing, Bogár considers how Turing’s concerns about machine intelligence are embodied in Vonnegut’s work, and discusses a possible world where these concerns have become reality.
- Notes:
- Preprint.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Book chapter
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 4 years ago
- License:
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
can_a_machine_be_a_gentleman_machine_eth.doc