I’ve always been a great sci-fi fan. Lots of people, especially girls, think ‘geek’ when I say that. I’d beg to differ. I don’t spend hours watching star trek marathons, and I’ve never enjoyed the Star Wars movies. Infact, none of the star* (for the non-programming folk, the asterisk is a wild card character, hence meaning anything beginning with star — Star Trek, Star Wars, StarGate) has ever held any fascination for me. But good sci-fi books are something I’ve always enjoyed. Asimov and Clarke would be on the top of my list. To me, a sci-fi novel doesn’t really have much techno-mumbo-jumbo in it. It’s a regular novel, with regular people, just in a different environment. People who think otherwise should give a few Asimov books a try before dismissing it as rubbish.

I watched I, Robot last night. I’ve always liked Will Smith, Asimov, and action movies. So the movie was right up my alley. The action movie part of the movie was good. But the way the movie dealt with the 3-laws was rather weak. But that is to be expected. One would have to make a movie in the scope of Lord of The Rings to properly explain the intricacies Asimov’s robotic world.

I never knew it, but apparently a lot of researches are implicitly implementing Asimov’s laws in their AI/robotic research. This site gives a useful insight into the shortcomings of Asimov’s laws and why they could even be dangerous. It’s an interesting read, if one is an Asimov fan. And if one is not, maybe it could be a first step.