Asimov is one of those writers among a
few, that has always inspired me. Growing up in small town Germany,
books were my favourite past time, and science fiction was the escape
from reality you needed. I flew to the stars with Mark Brandis, brought
peace to the universe with Perry Rhodan, went into cybersleep with Buck
Rodgers and defeated the evil Ming with Flash Gordon. Who could forget
HAL in the 2001 series by AC Clarke. And I met the aliens in Carl
Sagan's Contact. I still believe that Jodie Foster is brilliant
in that movie, but the book is a lot better.

More than all of those, I became
fascinated with the concepts of intelligence, self awareness and
artificial life. If you've seen AI, you should have a small
glimpse into the philosophy of robotic life. Asimov was the first writer
to portray robots as positive, as self aware individuals who would
contribute to society. Many writers built on this concept.

I guess, in the early 21st century one of
the questions we have is the question of life itself. What makes a human
a human, what makes a life a life, and at what point do we melt into
each other.

Going a step back. When you look at
science and the industrial revolution you will notice that over the last
few decades things become multifunctional. Originally, a Printer was
just that: A printer. It would produce pages. A copier would take those
pages and copy it. These days you have a copier that connects to a
computer and becomes a printer, in many cases a fax machine and scanner
as well.

Phones started as devices to make calls.
These days your phoneline carries data to and from other computers and
networks us to the world. In many cases we don't even need the physical
copper wire anymore. We can connect wirelessly. Our cellphones have
turned into PDAs, that we can connect to the internet to play games and
exchange data. Give humanity another 10 years or so, and I'm sure, most
of us will have organisers that are wirelessly connected to the internet
at all times, making it possible to schedule appointments with your
doctor or the teacher of your children by typing a bit of data into your
handheld.

Your hifi system at home, that used to
play vinyl and tapes quite sufficiently (and how nerdy were you, if you
had a genuine diamond needle on your turntable?), now has to stream
Dolby7.1 digital streams into groups of speakers. It has to be able to
process WMAs and MP3s, make your DVDs look good and record your
favourite TV program onto DVDs, if possible sans ads.

Humanity is going the same way. The
approach comes from two directions.

Direction one is from the human point.
More and more of our body parts can be replaced by artificial limbs.
Legs, arms, eyes, ears, teeth, bones, the heart, nerves... almost
everything can be replaced. It won't be long and we will be able to
replace brain tissue and maybe a full brain. So, in the extreme, a human
who's every physical part has been replaced... what makes him the human
that he is? Self awareness? Intelligence? memories?

The other direction is what they broadly
call Artificial Intelligence. Imagine a computer that can think. Most
computers have a certain degree of AI already. They can check your
spelling and auto correct it. They can adjust the brightness of the
digits on your alarm clock when it's dark. They can switch your
microwave on for exactly the right time to reheat your dinner from last
night. Some can even give half way intelligent answers when you probe
them.

Go one step beyond that. What happens
when a computer can make "conscious" decisions? Sure, it depends on the
input, but so do humans. We put an umbrella over our heads when it
rains. Our skin senses the rain, and commands our arms to take out the
umbrella unfold it and shield us from the rain. A machine could do that.
In fact, we can build machines that can mimic most human behaviour, but
as yet have no will of their own. Isn't that the difference? Free will?

So, think back of the original scenario,
with the human who has been entirely replaced with artificial body
parts. If we could transplant his consciousness into a machine...
wouldn't he be the same thing? AC Clarke wrote a really good book called
Richter 10. In it he explores the mind of the main
character, who is a seismologist hunting earthquakes. In the end of the
book, the main character dies, but his consciousness is transferred into
a computer and then into an android that looks like him, and in it he
lives forever.

Isn't that the dream that keeps us all
going? The dream that one day we can live forever? Every Christian will
tell you that they are in it for the long haul. Life on Earth matters
little when you have eternal life in heaven to look forward to.

And why are we so hooked up on eternal
life?

Isn't it because we are afraid of death?
The one thing we can't escape from? No money in the world will prevent
you from dying, no medicines, no cures. We all die. What if we could
preserve our essence and put it into something else?

I, Robot is just a speck on the
screen and it (unfortunately) hardly touches on the subject, instead
focussing on the big blockbuster special effects. It is a great movie,
but it doesn't make you think too hard. Read the book instead. It will.