Reason by Isaac Asimov is a short story that takes place on a space station where humans (Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell) in conjunction with robots work together to supply solar energy to planets. A special robot named QT-1 who was created by Powell and Donovan is the first to question his existence and they try to explain it to him. Upon explaining to him Cutie is unable to believe this and thus formulates his own theory for existence. This brings us to a central theme throughout the story which is the constant questioning of humanity and its existence. Cutie can also be seen a metaphor of the human mind as he constantly questions his existence much like how humans tend to question reasons for their own existence. Powell and Donovan try to explain Cutie that they are the creators of him yet …show more content…
The first hint Cutie’s curiosity is the beginning of the short story where Powell and Donovan tries to explain too Cutie that they created him. “Something made you, Cutie,” pointed out Powell. “You admit yourself that your memory seems to spring full-grown from an absolute blankness of a week ago. I’m giving you the explanation. Donovan and I put you together from the parts shipped us.” (Evans, 162)
Cutie went onto say: “It strikes me that there should be a more satisfactory explanation than that. For you to make me seems improbable.” (Evans, 162) Cutie continues to deny what he’s being told and tries to make reason of facts that he already know, and by doing so he symbolizes the human mind’s constant need to reason from concrete facts. It is human nature to work up from the information already known. Cutie starts off by stating the facts “I, myself, exist, because I think” (Evans, 164) and immediately follows with a very important question “And the question that immediately arose was: Just what is the cause of my existence?” (Evans, 165). This question is important because it symbolizes the question that man-kind
“ Some Close Encounters of a Mental Kind ” by Stephen Jay Gould is about the tendency for our minds to ‘lie’ to ourselves because of a certain key phrase that can cause people to believe certain events happened. This can be done by altering the types of question you want the victim to hear. It can be a certain modified questions or the way the question are presented to us that can cause our answers to be slightly false.
8- McDermid, Douglas. "God's Existence." PHIL 1000H-B Lecture 9. Trent University, Peterborough. 21 Nov. 2013. Lecture.
Journalist Jon Krakauer reassembles the fact of life of a young man who leaves his family and society to find true himself. Krakauer intends to reveal Christopher McCandless’s character and nature by interacting people who influenced him. The more people were attached to him, get to know more about him in depth; those who know him from outside often refered him as careless. In the book Into the Wild Krakauer presents McCandless as modest and caring person whereas other may see him as thoughtless.
why are we here" (Gardner 11) the only way he realized the truth was from
classicmoviescripts/script/seventhseal.txt. Internet. 4 May 2004. Blackham, H. J. Six Existentialist Thinkers. New York: Harper, 1952. Choron, Jacques. Death and Western Thought. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
People love to read stories and watch movies of a science-fictional society that include robots with artificial intelligence. People are intrigued with the ability of the robots that seem to demonstrate what we humans consider morality. Eando Binder’s and Isaac Asimov’s short stories, as well as the 2004 Hollywood movie, all carry the title “I, Robot” and introduce possible futuristic worlds where robots are created and integrated within society. These stories challenge our perceptions about robots themselves, and could perhaps become an everyday commodity, or even valued assistants to human society. The different generations of “I, Robot” seem to set out the principles of robot behavior and showcase robots to people in both different and similar ways. How does the Robot view itself? More importantly, how does society judge these creations? The concepts discussed in these three stories covers almost 75 years of storytelling. Why has this theme stayed so relevant for so long?
Albert Einstein was undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest physicians and mathematicians of all time. Einstein’s theories of relativity completely changed the world and have had a huge impact on how we currently live our lives. From how we heat our homes to how we are able to use GPS navigation systems. His theories have greatly changed how we must view the world around us. His theories of relativity and his works during the world wars earned him a Nobel Prize in physics, to name one of the many he deservingly received.
Ross, Kelly L. "Existentialism." The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series. Kelly L. Ross, Ph.D., 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
2. Asimov, Isaac, and Karen A. Frankel. ROBOTS: Machines in Man's Image. New York: Harmony Books, 1985. p 2.
Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker was created in 1880 with an original size of about 70 cm high. When it was created, Rodin used to call it The Poet and it was designed to be put on The Gates of Hell, another of Rodin’s work. This sculpture is an enlarged replica created in 1903 located on the Fine Arts Museum of Montreal, and the original sculpture is located on Paris in the museum of Rodin. It was created with patinated plaster for bronze casting.
Issac Asimov's I, Robot Asimov’s robots can be described as clumsy, hard-working, cost-efficient, soulless, strong, fast, obedient, human-made, a cleaner better breed, more human than man. Robots can be caring, gentle, self-aware, creative, intelligent and also evil, rebellious. Robots are made out of metal, plastic, aluminum, gears, bolts, wheels, sensors, memory chips, and other gadgets. TEXT STUDY Asimov’s book “I, Robot” is full of exciting short stories about human-robot relations. But the one story that really touched me was the first of the nine: Robbie.
Davies-Stofka, Beth. "Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence." Patheos Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. .
Abraham Maslow was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1908, to Jewish immigrants from Russia who had little to no education. He had a very sad and lonely childhood. His parents were verbally abusive towards him, calling him “ugly” and other degrading terms. Growing up hearing these things caused him to be very self conscious and have a negative image of himself. Maslow was the only Jewish boy in his neighborhood, so he could not really relate to any of the kids around him. He isolated himself from the other children and spent most of his recreational time in the library reading. There was no love in his household and he didn't have much a relationship with either of his parents. He used books in the library to escape his harsh reality.
Humans have a natural sense of curiosity. How does this work? Why does that happen? What makes this do that? Among us, there will always be those who strive to find the answers to questions like these and more. One of these people was Albert Einstein, perhaps one of the greatest human minds this world has ever known.
Since human kind gained the ability of reflection we have questioned our purpose of existence. What makes a human, human? Four philosophers, representing four areas of Philosophy, attempt to answer this question. First is the Dutchman Soren Kierkegaard and his book Sickness unto Death, who is considered the “Father of Existentialism”. Prevalent through all of Kierkegaard’s work was his constant goal to move people closer to God and thus closer to discovering their authentic self. Therefore, our relationship with God is what makes us human. Next is Jeremy Rifkin and his book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in A World in Crisis who believes that humanity is defined by our ability to empathize with other humans whether