In Liu and Asimov’s short stories, the authors define human beings and how artificial intelligence differs from the human mind. The author of The Algorithms for Love, Liu Ken, writes that humans are too young and too immature to understand the global laws of the universe. However, it seems to many that human self-sufficiency and autonomy in desires and actions is prohibitive. Asimov’s Liar is unique in that it is one of the author’s first attempts to reflect from different angles on the modern world’s clash of high technology and morality. Liu and Asimov approach the problem of artificial intelligence differently, but they agree that there is a strong similarity between the thinking of robots and humans.
Liu Ken wonders where the boundary is between artificial and natural intelligence. He is interested whether the robot’s self-learning program can be considered a person (Ken 5). After all, in essence, the decisions it makes are based on experience and knowledge – humans reason the same way. The author goes on to ask his readers whether humans can be considered robots with artificial intelligence, in case one considers that there is no essential difference between the latter and people (Ken 5). Thus, Liu Ken brings readers to his final question of who programmed humans in this case.
Ken’s story is about a young woman named Elena, a programmer and designer for a company that creates unusual toys – robot androids. Improving from model to model, she finally manages to create a robot that can easily cope with the Turing test, able to communicate like a real person. However, she is the only one who understands that this apparent intelligence is only the result of talented and competent programming. Analyzing the results of her work, Elena comes to a frightening question. She begins to worry that there is a possibility that people are not intelligent either and only work out the algorithms embedded in their internal program from day to day. In this story, Ken Liu once again managed to combine serious science fiction with subtle psychology and the dramatic fate of the main character in a small story. This literary work makes its readers embrace the idea of the identity of the artificial and human intelligence.
Among the works of Isaac Asimov, one of the most significant and unique can be considered a collection of short stories I, Robot. This work most fully expresses the social and philosophical views of the writer in the early stage of his work (Baysal 172). The sixth story in the collection, Liar, makes it clear that human psychology, philosophy, and social laws interest Asimov more than the technical side of the literary work. Some of Asimov’s thoughts in this story are conveyed through the statements of the robot RB-34. Herbie says that science is of little interest for him in one of his monologues (Asimov 65). This hero is much more concerned with fiction and the intertwining and interplay of human motivations and feelings. The monologue under analysis reflects Asimov’s penchant for social and philosophical issues and his belief in art and commitment to the ideas of humanism.
The authors are united by the themes of the stories and the issues they raise, although the writers’ attention span is slightly different. Asimov pushes readers to the idea that the ideal robot is a human being. At the same time, Liu cautions about the consequences of recognizing the equality between how humans think and how robots do. Nevertheless, both authors try to define what is human and what are the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of being people.
Works Cited
Asimov, Iisac. I, Robot. Gnome Press, 1950.
Baysal, Kubra. “Technophobia and Robot Agency in Asimov’s I, Robot.” Special issue of IBAD Journal of Social Sciences, 2020, pp. 171-179. Web.
Liu, Ken. The Algorithms for Love. Strange Horizons, 2004.