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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Hangman | ||
| A telefactoring device that also was able to function independently. |
In this book of novellas, Roger Zelazny shows us some of the life experience of a man who doesn't exist. That is, according to the computer systems of this near future world, he did not exist.
One of the original programmers, he was able to assign himself an identity whenever he wished. Each of the stories is a case he accepted as a contractor from a private investigative agency.
In this story, the Hangman is a remarkable device that was part telefactoring device and part autonomous robot. Using an advanced brain, it learned while being used as a telefactoring device. However, this robot learned more than anyone thought possible from his trainers, returning from a space mission to kill them one by one.
| My mind was filled to the splitting point with the double vision of the sleek, gunmetal body of the advancing telefactor and the erect, crazy-crowned image of myself - left hand extended, laser pistol in my right, that arm pressed close against my side. |
| Technovelgy from My Name is Legion,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Del Rey in 1976 Additional resources -
|
The above quote describes the experience of both seeing from the robot's point of view and one's own.
This novel explores, in a very thoughtful way, a very unexpected manner in which machine intelligence might arise. It's an interesting question: how much of the complexity of our own thinking and feeling do we want to pass on to machines?
In the story, the sensitive neuristor brain of the Hangman teleoperated robot is subjected to the impressions, thoughts and feelings of the operators when a night watchman is inadvertently killed by the robot during a test run out of the lab, and into a bank.
"...I started to let myself out. The light hit me as I emerged. It was a hand flash. The guard had been standing out of sight. He'd a gun in his other hand. I panicked. I hit him. Reflex. If I am going to hit someone I hit him as hard as I can. Only I hit him with the strength of the Hangman. He must have died instantly."
(From 'Home is the Hangman' by Roger Zelazny)
Compare to the control helmet from Dawn of the Demigods, by Raymond Z. Gallun, published by Planet Stories in 1954. See also the entry for Robot AI Driven Mad from Liar (1941) by Isaac Asimov.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from My Name is Legion
More Ideas
and Technology by Roger Zelazny
Tech news articles related to My Name is Legion
Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny
Hangman-related
news articles:
- Teleo-Reactive Programs Are Reaching Their Goals
- 'Schizophrenic' Computer Aids Researchers
- Robot Swarms Improve Culture By Forgetting
- MIT Boffins Create Psychopath AI On Purpose
- Missing Jet Finally Found
| LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving |
| When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI |
| Australian Authors Reject AI Training Of Llama |
| Does AI Provide A Way Forward For Talk Therapy |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
