Laws of Robotics,Jurisprudence and Emotions:Crime and Punishment in Machines Like Me
Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me fictionalized a"moral model"in which the android Adam adheres to human laws.The conflicts between Adam's faith in jurisprudence and Adam's owner Charlie and his girlfriend Miranda's slant on emotions in Miranda's framing Gorringe results in Charlie's destroying Adam,the robot with self-consciousness.By exposing the conflicts of rules humans and androids respectively follow,the author engages his readers in reflection:Is human ready to coexist with androids?Focusing on Gorringe's crime,Miranda's crime and Charlie's"crime",this essay aims to elaborate the conflicts arising from Adam's clinging to legality but breaking laws of robotics and scrutinize Charlie's complicated ethical emotions toward Adam,so as to reveal the connotation of crime and punishment and to reflect on the rights of conscious robots in a posthuman world.
Ian McEwanMachines Like Melaws of roboticsjuridical logicemotions