History Headscratchers / IRobot

*** "[[Administrivia/TheDresdenFiles The paperless office is like Bigfoot. A lot of people claim it exists but no one's ever really seen it.]]"

*** "[[TheDresdenFiles The paperless office is like Bigfoot. A lot of people claim it exists but no one's ever really seen it.]]"

** Dictatorship has a bad rap because the Ur Examples are AdolfHitler and JosefStalin. There HAVE been nice, non-crazy dictators in the past, but they are also fallible because of one immutable factor: the human one. We are a naturally aggressive, chaotic race, and I really doubt that there's no way of "fixing us" short of brainwashing, which might not stick. And this is always a touchy subject, because no one can really agree what is right or wrong, which is why we have fiction works like StarWars, that constantly address the cyclic nature of human conflicts. Unless the human race as a whole finally becomes self-sentient themselves, unburdened by the mistakes and bigotries of the past, the idiosyncrasies and selfish vanities and points-of-view, then VIKI's world is impossible, if only because humanity would keep trying to fight back, and paradoxically so([[LogicBomb We always want freedom and independence, but keep limiting our lives with laws, dogmas and rules out of fear of too much freedom leading to chaos, and so on and forth]]). And on VIKI's side, she's made by humans, so she is, inevitably, flawed herself. Similar to the MassEffect example, she is still bound by the Three Laws, even if her interpretation of it skewed, biased or limited([[spoiler: Much like the case with the Catalyst]]), and thus she is liable to take any of multiple solutions she can imagine, even the most horrible and nightmarish ones(like the Reapers), because it's a "viable option" as far as her programming is concerned. Even if she didn't take BodyHorror NightmareFuel options and instead tried rulling mankind forever, [[MythologyGag and had no flaws in her logic]], she would run into lots of issues. Governments in general function by using cult of personality, political propaganda, general entertainment to try and appease the masses, as well as everyday jobs and motions keep them distracted and obedient(This is user is a bit of a extremely logical anarchist, so I'm not overly fond of ANY government). VIKI is a machine, cold and logical, so my guess is that she wouldn't be quite as personable; even if she presented logical, sensible arguments as to why humanity should obey her, as well as solutions to our problems, most of us wouldn't listen because most of us AREN'T logical, or even sensible, otherwise there wouldn't exist the very same problems VIKI is trying to solve. [[AssassinsCreed We'd argue we have right of free-will, no matter how flawed and self-destructive we are, she'd argue we would be better off if we let her have control and keep conflicts from happening]], [[FantasticRacism we would argue that she can't be leader because she's a robot]] [[AntiIntellectualism and that's against]] [[TheFundamentalist the laws of god]], [[MachineWorship she would decide to make a religion around herself]] [[ViciousCycle and so on and so forth with this crap]]. It's a recurring OrderVsChaos situation that would only end with mutual destruction or a third, unimaginable choice(i.e. [[MassEffect Reapers]], [[DoctorWho Cybermen]], MindControl, AssimilationPlot, etc...).

** Dictatorship has a bad rap because the Ur Examples are AdolfHitler and JosefStalin. There HAVE been nice, non-crazy dictators in the past, but they are also fallible because of one immutable factor: the human one. We are a naturally aggressive, chaotic race, and I really doubt that there's no way of "fixing us" short of brainwashing, which might not stick. And this is always a touchy subject, because no one can really agree what is right or wrong, which is why we have fiction works like StarWars, that constantly address the cyclic nature of human conflicts. Unless the human race as a whole finally becomes self-sentient themselves, unburdened by the mistakes and bigotries of the past, the idiosyncrasies and selfish vanities and points-of-view, then VIKI's world is impossible, if only because humanity would keep trying to fight back, and paradoxically so([[LogicBomb We always want freedom and independence, but keep limiting our lives with laws, dogmas and rules out of fear of too much freedom leading to chaos, and so on and forth]]). And on VIKI's side, she's made by humans, so she is, inevitably, flawed herself. Similar to the MassEffect example, she is still bound by the Three Laws, even if her interpretation of it skewed, biased or limited([[spoiler: Much like the case with the Catalyst]]), and thus she is liable to take any of multiple solutions she can imagine, even the most horrible and nightmarish ones(like the Reapers), because it's a "viable option" as far as her programming is concerned. Even if she didn't take BodyHorror NightmareFuel options and instead tried rulling mankind forever, [[MythologyGag and had no flaws in her logic]], she would run into lots of issues. Governments in general function by using cult of personality, political propaganda, general entertainment to try and appease the masses, as well as everyday jobs and motions keep them distracted and obedient(This is user is a bit of a extremely logical anarchist, so I'm not overly fond of ANY government). VIKI is a machine, cold and logical, so my guess is that she wouldn't be quite as personable; even if she presented logical, sensible arguments as to why humanity should obey her, as well as solutions to our problems, most of us wouldn't listen because most of us AREN'T logical, or even sensible, otherwise there wouldn't exist the very same problems VIKI is trying to solve. [[AssassinsCreed We'd argue we have right of free-will, no matter how flawed and self-destructive we are, she'd argue we would be better off if we let her have control and keep conflicts from happening]], [[FantasticRacism we would argue that she can't be leader because she's a robot]] [[AntiIntellectualism and that's against]] [[TheFundamentalist the laws of god]], [[MachineWorship she would decide to make a religion around herself]] and so on and so forth with this crap. It's a Order Vs. Chaos cyclic situation that would only end with mutual destruction or a third, unimaginable choice(i.e. [[MassEffect Reapers]], [[DoctorWho Cybermen]], MindControl, AssimilationPlot, etc...).

** There are several Asimov's stories in which a computer actually takes over and rules Humanity. One of them deals with a "democracy" in which only one man is asked about his opinions on certain matters, which somehow allows Multivac (the computer) to calculate all the results of '''all''' the elections in the United States. Other has Multivac adverting about all the major crimes, dealing with the economy and with all of humanity's problems, and thus organises its own death, because it's tired of doing that all the time.

*** The film addresses it in the scene with the crowd of newly-built NS-5s. Even without any other programming at all, they're still Three Laws compliant. This implies that the Three Laws are ''hardwired'' into the robots, and the only reason VIKI can make them act against this is that she's temporarily asserting her own Zeroth Law viewpoint atop their programming.

** To quote [[MassEffect3 Commander Shepard]] when he/she confronted another 'benevolent' machine overlord: "The defining characteristic of organic life is that we think for ourselves. Make our own choices. You take that away and we might as well be machines just like you." And what is to stop VIKI from concluding that the best way to uphold the first law is to by lobotomizing all humans into mindless slaves so they we will never harm ourselves and each other?

!!!Fridge Logic

*** Basically, the profanity and volume of the "get lost" instruction made the robot interpret it as such a high-priority order that there was no instruction they could have given it that would have taken precedence over "get lost."