A few months ago I came across a really unusual social media account. The user travels around the known parts of the world, but the strange thing is that there is no one anywhere. According to him, he is on a world that is exactly like ours, but he is stuck in an alternate universe where there is no one.
Although this is, of course, the fictional side of the work, he is able to convey the fictional text he is talking about very well because he makes great use of his video editing skills, even in conveying the places that are usually the most crowded. I always watch it when I come across it, it offers a different experience.
The silence of the videos, the strange feeling that no one is there, and the hilarity of those who still cannot make sense of what is going on in the comments, trying to make assumptions… It all intertwined and made me think. What if it were really like this, what would it be like?
First of all, although this sounds like the beginning of a very post-apocalyptic fictional story, it is necessary to add a few details to the situation. First of all, we know that there are no zombies or mutated monsters. The user is “supposedly” in the same universe. But life had to go on somehow. This gives me the feeling that the existence of robots might be more plausible.
Life in nature can get along just fine without us. But if you were the only one around today, you might not have access to everything you need to survive. First and foremost, you would need a constant supply of energy such as electricity, clean water, gas, etc. to meet your basic needs.
To be honest, just seeing this account on social media was not enough for me to write about it. I read the short story “Who Can Replace A Man?” by Brian Wilson Aldiss. I really liked it and it deals with our topic. I recommend you read it.
I think Aldiss is a great writer and he is an admirer of Herbert George Wells and was vice-president of the international group in his honour. Also, the idea for Steven Spielberg’s film “A.I.” was based on one of his stories.
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
To return to the short story, it is about the work of robots of different generations, assigned and defined for different lines of work, and their interaction with each other as a result of the disappearance of humans. The hierarchy and chain of command between them shows their human side.
At the end of the story, only one phrase from a human they encounter is enough and they are under his command. It is obvious that Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” have retained their universal validity in this story.
But would they really? Would robots have their own moral structures, internal conflicts, separations, wars? Would they continue to have human characteristics because they are made by humans?
I think it is too early to think about this realistically, because such technologies have not yet conquered the present. Fortunately, this is precisely why there is a genre, science fiction, which exists as if detached from philosophy. Science fiction is the place where fictions come to life that have not yet happened in our lives, or are unthinkable.
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