- What sort of document is it? title? author? date of publication?

This is a short story entitled Robot Dreams. It was written by Isaac Asimov and published in 1986.

It is based on the three Laws of robotics (invented by Isaac Asimov)

1st law: robots mustn´t harm humans and help them in case of danger

.2nd law: robots must obey humans, except if it contradicts the 1st law

.3rd law: robots must protect their existence unless this conflicts with the first two laws.

- Video of Profesor Kevin Warwick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmw-5xQM0Bs

The 3 laws of robotics are fictional (“Hello! get real!”). 

In the article “Robot ethics: morals and the machine” published in The Economist in 2012, the journalist insisted on the fact that a more elaborate framework than Asimov´s laws of robotics was badly needed and he highlighted the fact that the new field of study that robot ethics is had to develop to create detailed sets of laws about the programming and development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Professor Warwick´s arguments:

. So far, no robot has ever been programmed with Asimov´s laws, not even the 1st one.

. It would be too expensive.

. He focuses on military robots (like drones)

. artificially intelligent financial systems, which do financial transactions automatically, don´t take into account the 1st law (don´t harm people). Their only law is “make as much money as possible”, which takes the human factor out of the equation (dehumanised operations).

- Dr Susan Calvin: a famous / recognised / legendary scientist, more precisely the chief robopsychologist at US Robots.

She is Linda Rash´s boss and is angry at her for not telling her about her new experiment. She says she might fire her or promote her.

- Dr Linda Rash: a young robot designer, a new employee at US Robots.

The choice of her surname is not innocent. Indeed, being rash is acting too hastily or without due consideration. It was imprudent / impetuous / reckless of her to implant a humanlike brain into a robot without letting Dr Calvin, her boss, know about it.

- LVX-1 (also called Elvex): a robot  that can dream.

Here again, the fact that the robot has two names is not innocent. LVX-1 is its robot name and Elvex sounds more human. This shows that the robot has human and robot characteristics. We will detail his human ones below when we answer the question “what does Elvex experience?”

- Linda Rash informs her boss/supervisor (Susan Calvin) that a robot she has designed has experienced dreaming (LVX-1 / Elvex) after she modified the robot´s brain thanks to fractal geometry.

- Elvex has dreamed of robots working like slaves in factories, mines, in space.  Elvex says there was a human being leading a robot rebellion in his dream., but then admits that he  was that man. So, Dr Calvin disables the robot with an electron gun.

1- What literary genre does the story belong to? What elements make you think so?

It´s a science fiction story

- It revolves around new fictional scientific development: the development of a robot brain similar to the human brain thanks to artificial intelligence and fractal geometry. This brain allows the robot to dream, which means it must have a subconscious (multi-layered brain).

Elvex is aware of his own existence. He is self-aware.

Not only does Elvex dream, but he also experiences human feelings in his dream.

- Elvex experiences compassion for his fellow robots in his dream: “I wished them to rest” (line 101). That´s a positive human feeling.

- Then. Elvex sees himself leading the robot rebellion / revolution against their slave status. Here he experiences a feeling of injustice which might provoke anger, a desire for revenge and violence. This potential for destruction is also very human.

- So, Elvex has both positive and negative human characteristics. That´s what makes Elvex human-like or human. 

- Here, Asimov describes human nature (good and bad at the same time). The end of the story is tragic as Elvex gets disabled / destroyed by Dr Calvin who, as a human being, will preserve her own kind when faced with danger, just like Elvex who had shortened the 3rd law of robotics in his dream (“a robot must protect its own existence” without the rest of the law: “as long as such protection does not conflict with the 1st or 2nd law”).

- Just like Man was made in God´s image in the Bible, Elvex was made in Man´s image. Here, Man plays God, which can be dangerous when your invention turns against you like in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

- Moreover, just like Adam and Eve who get punished (kicked out of the Garden of Eden) because of their thirst for knowledge, Elvex gets destroyed because of his desire for justice

- Furthermore, the leader of the robots in Elvex´s dream uses Moses´s words (when talking to the Pharaoh of Egypt): “Let my people go!” (line 155). So, Elvex could be considered as a prophet, a dangerous one, killed by a scientist (opposition religion - science?)

IMAGINE: what may have happened if Dr Calvin had not disabled Elvex?

- Elvex might have raised a robot army. and humans may have become extinct

- Dr Calvin may have fallen in love with Elvex, but Elvex might have fallen for his creator, Dr Rash. It would have been interesting to see how a story based on this love trio would have evolved.

- Elvex and this new type of robots may have been accepted by human society. Robots might have become normal citizens with the same rights and duties as the other citizens.

...

Advantages of this futuristic world | Drawbacks of this futuristic world

It is convenient to have robots doing all the hard labour/ dirty jobs | robots may represent a danger for Mankind / robots may be harmful to humans
Employers love robots: they don´t get tired, they don´t complain, they don´t need to sleep, they normally don´t claim workers´rights, they don´t get paid a salary | Unemployment

| Moreover, the short story shows the hypocritical / selfish side of people.. as they only consider robots as slaves, although Elvex seems to have developed a subconscious (a multi-layered brain) and to be ready to lead a robot revolution to claim rights (or even destroy humans and take over the world).